Burney Co. Purchases New Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Burney Co. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 1,129 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $330,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AYI. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $86,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $3,717,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,050,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 427 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $118,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 352 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $97,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective 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 target price on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer increased 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. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock traded down $0.05 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $330.70. 263,445 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 340,041. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $217.64 and a one year high of $337.99. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $315.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $283.73. The stock has a market cap 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. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.98.

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. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.