Prosperity Consulting Group LLC Buys Shares of 959 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Prosperity Consulting Group LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund bought 959 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $280,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,940,000. Hancock Whitney Corp boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,744 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,970,000 after acquiring an additional 267 shares in the last quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 8,784 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,566,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 8,705 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 19.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,841 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $9,595,000 after acquiring an additional 5,402 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price target on Acuity Brands in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price 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. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.4 %

Acuity Brands stock opened at $241.93 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.81 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The company has a market capitalization of $7.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $261.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $297.43.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.38 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 5.16%.

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.