Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Bought by Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 345.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 72,761 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 56,409 shares during the quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $21,404,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 16.6% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 352 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $97,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,425 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $943,000 after buying an additional 97 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $462,000. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $484,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 32.8% in the 3rd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 27,042 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $7,447,000 after buying an additional 6,679 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 2.5 %

AYI stock opened at $257.33 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The company has a market capitalization of $7.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $312.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $302.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released 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 company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 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 MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has an average 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.