Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Acquired by Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership

Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 241.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 216,007 shares of the electronics maker's stock after purchasing 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 institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Level Four Advisory Services LLC grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 40.6% during the 4th quarter. Level Four Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,465 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,597,000 after buying an additional 1,577 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 9.3% during the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,187 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,223,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares during the last quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $174,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $110,236,000. Finally, Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $894,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on AYI. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report 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. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $324.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded down $24.11 on Friday, hitting $233.15. The company had a trading volume of 1,524,952 shares, compared to its average volume of 286,198. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. 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 $7.22 billion, a PE ratio of 17.17, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $294.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $304.28.

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

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.16%.

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.