McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. boosted its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 6.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 22,620 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,335 shares during the quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. owned 0.07% of Acuity Brands worth $6,608,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Smith Group Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $19,703,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 22.4% in the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 134,591 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $39,318,000 after purchasing an additional 24,603 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 109.6% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 20,901 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $6,106,000 after purchasing an additional 10,928 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 17.2% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,994 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $549,000 after purchasing an additional 292 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. now owns 883 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $258,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $327.09 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $316.40 and a 200 day moving average of $288.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.09, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.72 EPS. As a group, research 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.21%. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.42%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

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.