Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd Acquires Shares of 1,896 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 1,896 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $554,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 40.9% during the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the topic of several analyst reports. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of 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 equities 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, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI traded down $12.62 during trading on Monday, hitting $284.51. The stock had a trading volume of 435,350 shares, compared to its average volume of 311,509. 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, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $316.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $301.44.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. Acuity Brands's revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.72 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.24%. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

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.