Personal CFO Solutions LLC Takes $207,000 Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Personal CFO Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 710 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $207,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. 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 lifted their target price 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, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.2 %

Acuity Brands stock opened at $268.19 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 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $313.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $302.82. The firm has a market cap of $8.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.75, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.72 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict 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 dividend of $0.17 per share. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.01%.

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.