Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Stock Holdings Increased by Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V.

Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 22.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 134,591 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 24,603 shares during the quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. owned 0.43% of Acuity Brands worth $39,318,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $266,865,000 after buying an additional 12,479 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $172,654,000 after acquiring an additional 34,032 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 437,745 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $120,551,000 after purchasing an additional 30,581 shares during the last quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 281,308 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $77,469,000 after purchasing an additional 5,435 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 9.3% in the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 269,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $74,092,000 after purchasing an additional 22,781 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $334.63 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.64 and a 1-year high of $345.30. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The business’s 50 day moving average is $316.65 and its 200-day moving average is $288.84. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.36 billion, a PE ratio of 24.64, a PEG ratio of 2.14 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 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders 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 0.20%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.42%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

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.