Nuveen Asset Management LLC Acquires 20,190 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Nuveen Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 32.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 83,369 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,190 shares during the quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $24,355,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AYI. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $40,000. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 50.5% during the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 161 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $47,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings 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 valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 40.9% during the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $52,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.1%

AYI opened at $261.75 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.81 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $8.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.27, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $251.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $292.06.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its 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 net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.38 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.16%.

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.