Autumn Glory Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Autumn Glory Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 1,000 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $292,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $172,654,000 after acquiring an additional 34,032 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 7.5% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 437,745 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $120,551,000 after purchasing an additional 30,581 shares during the period. Seizert Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 281,308 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $77,469,000 after purchasing an additional 5,435 shares during the period. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 9.3% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 269,043 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $74,092,000 after buying an additional 22,781 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded down $3.15 on Wednesday, reaching $326.44. The company's stock had a trading volume of 188,367 shares, compared to its average volume of 310,824. The company has a market capitalization of $10.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $317.31 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $296.47.

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

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is an increase from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.21%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio is 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $341.40.

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.