Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Short Interest Down 15.2% in March

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 840,700 shares, a decrease of 15.2% from the March 15th total of 991,500 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 387,700 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.2 days. Currently, 2.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 1.7 %

NYSE AYI traded up $3.82 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $232.61. 34,306 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 296,251. Acuity Brands has a 52-week low of $216.81 and a 52-week high of $345.30. The firm has a market cap of $7.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.15, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. 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 50 day moving average of $270.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $299.75.

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

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on shares of Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $317.60.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AYI. Durable Capital Partners LP raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 158.9% in the 4th quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $317,977,000 after buying an additional 668,048 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $110,236,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 29,415.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 227,271 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $59,852,000 after buying an additional 226,501 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 241.8% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 216,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $63,102,000 after acquiring an additional 152,807 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1,256.1% during the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 161,183 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $47,086,000 after acquiring an additional 149,297 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

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.