Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Acquired by McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc.

McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 6.3% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 22,620 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,335 shares during the period. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $6,608,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $62,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.5 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $327.09 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The stock has a market cap of $10.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $316.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $288.57.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.72 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

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

Acuity Brands 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.