Entropy Technologies LP Raises Stock Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Entropy Technologies LP raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 47.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,473 shares of the electronics maker's stock after buying an additional 796 shares during the quarter. Entropy Technologies LP's holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $722,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $266,865,000 after purchasing an additional 12,479 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $172,654,000 after buying an additional 34,032 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 7.5% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 437,745 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $120,551,000 after buying an additional 30,581 shares in the last quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.0% in the third quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 281,308 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $77,469,000 after buying an additional 5,435 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its holdings 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 last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI traded up $4.21 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $329.51. 198,700 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 291,011. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $316.93 and a 200 day moving average of $294.83. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $10.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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 business 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%. 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 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.01%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

About Acuity Brands

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.