Picton Mahoney Asset Management Acquires 428 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Picton Mahoney Asset Management raised its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 31.1% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,803 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 428 shares during the period. Picton Mahoney Asset Management’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $526,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $40,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $263.01 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $311.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $303.03. 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, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.64 and a 1-year high of $345.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus 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.