Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership Has $63.10 Million Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 241.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 216,007 shares of the electronics maker's stock after acquiring an additional 152,807 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership owned about 0.70% of Acuity Brands worth $63,102,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in AYI. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $906,930,000 after purchasing an additional 16,407 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $266,865,000 after buying an additional 12,479 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $172,654,000 after buying an additional 34,032 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $110,236,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its position in Acuity Brands by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 188,670 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $55,116,000 after buying an additional 2,795 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.

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Acuity Brands Stock Down 2.9 %

AYI traded down $7.72 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $258.68. 1,366,866 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 281,707. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The company has a market cap of $8.01 billion, a PE ratio of 19.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $297.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $304.27. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $217.64 and a one year high of $345.30.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.26%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.01%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 28th. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Oppenheimer upped their price objective 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. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $330.60.

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.