Impax Asset Management Group plc Sells 43 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Impax Asset Management Group plc lowered its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 3,533 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 43 shares during the quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,032,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $554,000. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 152,187 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $44,458,000 after purchasing an additional 3,589 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 64.3% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 4,600 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,344,000 after purchasing an additional 1,800 shares during the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,998,000. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 81.1% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 518 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $151,000 after acquiring an additional 232 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of AYI opened at $307.63 on Wednesday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week 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 company has a market capitalization of $9.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.65, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $316.81 and its 200-day moving average price is $299.58.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its 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 return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.72 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AYI. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, William Blair upgraded 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, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.