23,700 Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Bought by KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS

KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS bought a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 23,700 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $6,923,000.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $275.18 on Tuesday. 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 twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The company has a fifty day moving average of $306.52 and a 200-day moving average of $303.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer upped 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. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

About Acuity Brands

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.