Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd Buys Shares of 2,764 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 2,764 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $807,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AYI. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 13.1% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 2,504 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $690,000 after buying an additional 290 shares in the last quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 33.3% in the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,754 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $483,000 after purchasing an additional 438 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 56.0% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 2,723 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $753,000 after buying an additional 978 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 229.7% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 244 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 12.3% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 7,642 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $2,105,000 after buying an additional 835 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AYI. 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 lowered their price target on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on shares of Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI traded up $5.75 during trading on Friday, reaching $239.56. The stock had a trading volume of 140,648 shares, compared to its average volume of 291,816. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.81 and a 1-year high of $345.30. The stock has a market cap of $7.40 billion, a PE ratio of 17.59, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $282.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $302.24.

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

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.28%. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.16%.

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.