Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC Has $616,000 Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 46.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,110 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 667 shares during the period. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $616,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AYI. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 517.6% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

AYI opened at $328.65 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The business has a 50 day moving average of $316.75 and a 200-day moving average of $291.18. The stock has a market cap of $10.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.20, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.72 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.76 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Acuity Brands Company Profile

Acuity Brands, Inc provides lighting, lighting controls, building management system, location-aware applications in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL); and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG). The ABL segment provides commercial, architectural, and specialty lighting solutions, as well as lighting controls and components for various indoor and outdoor applications under the A-Light, Aculux, American Electric Lighting, Cyclone, Dark to Light, eldoLED, Eureka, Gotham, Healthcare Lighting, Holophane, Hydrel, Indy, IOTA, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Luminaire LED, Luminis, Mark Architectural Lighting, nLight, OPTOTRONIC, Peerless, RELOCWiring Solutions, and Sensor Switch.