Markel Group Inc. Makes New $876,000 Investment in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Markel Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 3,000 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $876,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $266,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,210,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% in the 4th 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 last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 398 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $116,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its position in Acuity Brands by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 951 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $278,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock traded down $6.63 on Thursday, reaching $257.33. The stock had a trading volume of 503,745 shares, compared to its average volume of 263,970. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The stock has a market cap of $7.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $312.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $302.24.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its 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. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. Acuity Brands's revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.01%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on AYI shares. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price objective for the company 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 given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target 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.