Lightrock Netherlands B.V. Buys New Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Lightrock Netherlands B.V. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 10,054 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $2,952,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AYI. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,026,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $19,703,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 741.8% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 71,744 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $20,959,000 after purchasing an additional 63,221 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $172,654,000 after purchasing an additional 34,032 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 437,745 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $120,551,000 after purchasing an additional 30,581 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI traded up $4.21 during trading on Friday, reaching $329.51. 198,700 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 320,363. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $316.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $293.95. The company has a market cap of $10.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.26, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.72 EPS. The company's revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.01%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of 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 upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer raised 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. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $341.40.

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.