Deutsche Bank AG Has $19.66 Million Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Deutsche Bank AG boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 4.7% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 67,281 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 3,002 shares during the quarter. Deutsche Bank AG’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $19,655,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AYI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $906,930,000 after purchasing an additional 16,407 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,120,979 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $327,471,000 after buying an additional 8,705 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $326,452,000 after buying an additional 103,162 shares during the last quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 158.9% during the 4th quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $317,977,000 after buying an additional 668,048 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.8% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 644,109 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $188,211,000 after acquiring an additional 17,299 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

AYI opened at $271.72 on Thursday. 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 company has a market capitalization of $8.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.01, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $251.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $293.56. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.81 and a 1 year high of $345.30.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.16%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on Acuity Brands in a report on Friday, April 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $317.60.

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.