Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Lowers Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lessened its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 17.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 21,360 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 4,388 shares during the quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $6,240,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $257.33 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.64 and a 1-year high of $345.30. The stock has a market cap of $7.97 billion, a PE ratio of 18.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $312.19 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $302.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.01%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on AYI. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. Oppenheimer lifted their target price 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. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.