Pictet Asset Management Holding SA Acquires 356 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Pictet Asset Management Holding SA raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 9.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,187 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 356 shares during the period. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,223,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $174,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $110,236,000. Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $894,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 25,390 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $7,417,000 after buying an additional 2,004 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 135.8% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 180,272 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $52,663,000 after buying an additional 103,818 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 9.4 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $233.15 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $294.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $304.02. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 5.16%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on AYI. 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. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut 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. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $324.60.

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.