Van ECK Associates Corp Boosts Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Van ECK Associates Corp raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 34.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 8,694 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 2,234 shares during the quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,781,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AYI. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 77.3% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 85.7% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 221 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 20.0% during the third quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 402 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $68,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 508.9% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 341 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 285 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janiczek Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 61.3% during the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 379 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $78,000 after buying an additional 144 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $289.25.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $262.27 on Thursday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $149.30 and a 12-month high of $272.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.47. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $258.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $224.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 1.96.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.23. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 9.81%. The business had revenue of $905.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $897.01 million. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.48 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In related news, Director Maya Leibman acquired 200 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the purchase, the director now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,782. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.