Holocene Advisors LP Makes New Investment in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 14,453 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $3,980,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 366.2% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $83,430,000 after purchasing an additional 271,485 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 187.8% in the second quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 330,331 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $79,755,000 after purchasing an additional 215,547 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 353.1% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $41,934,000 after purchasing an additional 135,350 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 35.7% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $98,306,000 after purchasing an additional 107,171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 16.7% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $106,201,000 after purchasing an additional 63,159 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE:AYI traded down $4.71 on Thursday, reaching $323.44. 328,612 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 256,908. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $310.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $270.65. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $183.76 and a 52 week high of $337.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.74 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.19%. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is presently 4.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have issued reports on AYI. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $324.00.

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.