Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) is Seizert Capital Partners LLC’s Largest Position

Seizert Capital Partners LLC cut its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 280,371 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 937 shares during the quarter. Acuity Brands comprises approximately 3.7% of Seizert Capital Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its biggest position. Seizert Capital Partners LLC owned about 0.91% of Acuity Brands worth $81,905,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AYI shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target 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. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. 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, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 3.7 %

Shares of AYI opened at $274.55 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.50 billion, a PE ratio of 20.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $315.87 and its 200-day simple moving average is $301.71.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.72 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.01%.

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.