6,618 Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Acquired by Inceptionr LLC

Inceptionr LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 6,618 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $1,933,000. Acuity Brands comprises approximately 0.4% of Inceptionr LLC's investment portfolio, making the stock its 26th biggest position.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 12,479 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew 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 in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 7.5% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 437,745 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $120,551,000 after purchasing an additional 30,581 shares during the last quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC grew its stake 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 269,043 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $74,092,000 after purchasing an additional 22,781 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

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Acuity Brands Stock Performance

AYI stock traded down $13.92 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $268.28. The company had a trading volume of 293,454 shares, compared to its average volume of 261,437. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.31 billion, a PE ratio of 19.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $314.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $302.52. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. 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 (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.72 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised 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 report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $341.40.

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.