2,354 Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Bought by Virtu Financial LLC

Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 2,354 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $687,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $266,865,000 after purchasing an additional 12,479 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $172,654,000 after buying an additional 34,032 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 269,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $74,092,000 after buying an additional 22,781 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 188,670 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $55,116,000 after buying an additional 2,795 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 152,187 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $44,458,000 after acquiring an additional 3,589 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 4.2 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $275.18 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $306.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $303.82.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.25%. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on AYI shares. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

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.