Aigen Investment Management LP Acquires Shares of 1,759 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 1,759 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $484,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 366.2% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $83,430,000 after acquiring an additional 271,485 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its position in Acuity Brands by 187.8% in the second quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 330,331 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $79,755,000 after purchasing an additional 215,547 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 353.1% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $41,934,000 after buying an additional 135,350 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 35.7% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $98,306,000 after purchasing an additional 107,171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,188,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.50% of the company's stock.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI stock traded down $3.76 on Friday, hitting $325.87. 238,516 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 255,958. The stock has a market cap of $10.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.16. The company has a 50 day moving average of $293.41 and a 200 day moving average of $264.34. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $176.93 and a 12 month high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. Acuity Brands's revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.74 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.46%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $324.00.

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.