Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Boosts Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 298.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,500 shares of the electronics maker's stock after acquiring an additional 19,100 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned about 0.08% of Acuity Brands worth $6,157,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 38.1% during the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 51,890 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $13,913,000 after purchasing an additional 14,329 shares in the last quarter. Quantedge Capital Pte Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $737,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 148.4% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 4,397 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,166,000 after buying an additional 2,627 shares in the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 8.0% during the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $6,965,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its position in Acuity Brands by 25.8% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 47,372 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $9,703,000 after buying an additional 9,729 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $289.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $286.25.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE AYI traded down $4.24 on Wednesday, hitting $268.38. 249,229 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 249,219. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.90, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. The business's fifty day moving average is $247.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $252.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.77. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.84 and a 12 month high of $275.05.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The business had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $996.52 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.50 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.