Oak Thistle LLC Makes New $516,000 Investment in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Oak Thistle LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 1,768 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $516,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth $35,000. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth $62,000. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the subject of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Three research 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, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of NYSE:AYI traded down $0.05 during trading on Friday, reaching $330.70. 263,445 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 446,513. The stock has a market cap of $10.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.98. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $315.48 and a two-hundred day moving average of $282.49. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.72 EPS. The company's revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.