AIA Group Ltd Purchases 2,039 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

AIA Group Ltd lifted its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 84.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,457 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 2,039 shares during the quarter. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $913,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in AYI. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 20,688 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $3,916,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 12,834 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,429,000 after purchasing an additional 379 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,982,396 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $564,568,000 after purchasing an additional 25,598 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,395,000. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 19,747 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,850,000 after purchasing an additional 1,647 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $289.25.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of AYI stock opened at $247.07 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $149.30 and a 12 month high of $272.74. The firm has a market cap of $7.61 billion, a PE ratio of 20.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.49. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $255.81 and a 200-day moving average of $216.69. 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 Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at $5,320,062.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Acuity Brands 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.