Franklin Resources Inc. Decreases Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Franklin Resources Inc. lowered its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 94,752 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 799 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $27,680,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $326,452,000 after purchasing an additional 103,162 shares during the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 10,181 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,974,000 after acquiring an additional 1,162 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 431.2% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 84,953 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $24,991,000 after acquiring an additional 68,959 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 241.8% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 216,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $63,102,000 after purchasing an additional 152,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Level Four Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 40.6% in the 4th quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,465 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,597,000 after purchasing an additional 1,577 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $233.15 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The firm has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $294.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $304.02. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.64 and a 1-year high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business’s revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.38 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.16%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on AYI shares. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Oppenheimer upped their price target 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. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $324.60.

About Acuity Brands

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.