EAM Investors LLC Acquires New Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

EAM Investors LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 14,179 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $4,142,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AYI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $906,930,000 after purchasing an additional 16,407 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $326,452,000 after acquiring an additional 103,162 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 644,109 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $188,211,000 after acquiring an additional 17,299 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 11.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 603,446 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $176,285,000 after acquiring an additional 61,765 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 436,060 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $127,386,000 after purchasing an additional 9,513 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the topic of several research reports. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price target on Acuity Brands in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.1 %

AYI stock opened at $236.30 on Wednesday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.81 and a 1-year high of $345.30. The stock has a market cap of $7.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $277.68 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $301.58. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.38 EPS. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.16%.

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.