Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Raises Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 741.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 71,744 shares of the electronics maker's stock after buying an additional 63,221 shares during the quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. owned about 0.23% of Acuity Brands worth $20,959,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at $62,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI traded down $0.05 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $330.70. The company had a trading volume of 263,445 shares, compared to its average volume of 340,041. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $315.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $283.73. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $337.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm's revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.72 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 2.80% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on AYI. 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. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $341.40.

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.