Private Client Services LLC Purchases New Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Private Client Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 4,713 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $1,377,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AYI. Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 105.8% in the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 20,363 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $4,916,000 after buying an additional 10,470 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.8% during the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 8,622 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $2,082,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares in the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $6,965,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. AdvisorShares Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 2nd quarter worth $441,000. Finally, Marco Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 19.9% during the 2nd quarter. Marco Investment Management LLC now owns 1,805 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $436,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on Acuity Brands from $330.00 to $320.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $323.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE AYI traded up $9.12 on Wednesday, hitting $312.99. 552,569 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 503,714. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.66 billion, a PE ratio of 23.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $214.32 and a 1-year high of $337.99. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $314.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $279.68. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The firm's revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.80% of the company's stock.

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.