First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Makes New $208,000 Investment in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 755 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AYI. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 38.1% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 51,890 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $13,913,000 after buying an additional 14,329 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 148.4% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 4,397 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,166,000 after acquiring an additional 2,627 shares in the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $6,965,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 15.0% in the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 42,027 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $11,281,000 after purchasing an additional 5,474 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the first quarter valued at about $757,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AYI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $302.71 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.84 and a fifty-two week high of $312.20. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $268.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $257.27. The firm has a market cap of $9.31 billion, a PE ratio of 24.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.74 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.20%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.88%.

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.