Abacus FCF Advisors LLC Buys New Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Abacus FCF Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 2,865 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $837,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $266,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,210,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $86,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 398 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $116,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 951 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $278,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.9 %

NYSE:AYI traded up $2.06 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $241.82. The company's stock had a trading volume of 45,952 shares, compared to its average volume of 383,689. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $281.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $302.26. 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 company has a market capitalization of $7.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $216.81 and a 12 month high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.38 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 5.16%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have issued reports on AYI. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on shares of Acuity Brands in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands 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.