Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 27.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 3,041 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 657 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $623,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,365,821 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $573,233,000 after purchasing an additional 17,459 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,313,389 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $627,225,000 after acquiring an additional 60,541 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.9% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,982,396 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $564,568,000 after acquiring an additional 25,598 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 19.3% in the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,208,990 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $228,862,000 after acquiring an additional 195,515 shares during the period. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 620.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,197,721 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $198,355,000 after acquiring an additional 1,031,432 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on AYI. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $289.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 1.4 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $248.47 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.65 billion, a PE ratio of 20.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.49. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $255.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $215.92. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $149.30 and a 52-week high of $272.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

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.