Verition Fund Management LLC Acquires 3,157 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Verition Fund Management LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 92.6% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,566 shares of the electronics maker's stock after buying an additional 3,157 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC's holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,808,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $3,717,000 after buying an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 1.2% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,050,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 427 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $118,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 16.6% during the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 352 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $97,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,541 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $613,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded up $1.29 during trading on Friday, hitting $324.73. 218,116 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 256,745. The stock has a market cap of $10.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.16, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $183.95 and a 52 week high of $337.99. The firm's fifty day moving average is $312.84 and its 200-day moving average is $271.45.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.18%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio is presently 4.46%.

Acuity Brands Company 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.