Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations Acquires New Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 3,061 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $894,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 8.6% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 25,390 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $7,417,000 after buying an additional 2,004 shares during the period. Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 135.8% during the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 180,272 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $52,663,000 after acquiring an additional 103,818 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $906,930,000 after acquiring an additional 16,407 shares during the period. Stevens Capital Management LP acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $319,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC raised its position in Acuity Brands by 78.8% in the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 12,061 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $3,523,000 after purchasing an additional 5,316 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock traded up $0.16 on Tuesday, reaching $263.51. The company's stock had a trading volume of 73,502 shares, compared to its average volume of 330,789. The business's fifty day moving average price is $300.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $304.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The company has a market cap of $8.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.40, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30.

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Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during 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%. Acuity Brands's revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.72 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be given 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 0.26%. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.01%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $330.60.

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.