Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Short Interest Up 8.3% in January

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) was the target of a large increase in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 856,500 shares, an increase of 8.3% from the January 15th total of 790,800 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 314,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.7 days. Currently, 2.8% of the company's stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Acuity Brands stock traded down $12.09 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $309.11. 261,838 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 221,664. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $317.15 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $297.44. Acuity Brands has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The stock has a market cap of $9.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38.

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

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is an increase from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.01%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Durable Capital Partners LP lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 158.9% during the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $110,236,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 241.8% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 216,007 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $63,102,000 after buying an additional 152,807 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1,256.1% during the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 161,183 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $47,086,000 after buying an additional 149,297 shares in the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $31,026,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% 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.