Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Position Raised by Diversified Trust Co

Diversified Trust Co grew its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 83.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 5,119 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 2,323 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,495,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 49,449 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $14,602,000 after buying an additional 2,677 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 8.3% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 770 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $225,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $86,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $3,849,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 24.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 95,551 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $26,314,000 after purchasing an additional 18,919 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $330.00 to $320.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Acuity Brands in a research note on Monday. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $304.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $323.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $312.99 on Thursday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $214.32 and a 12 month high of $337.99. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a market cap of $9.66 billion, a PE ratio of 23.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $315.01 and a 200-day simple moving average of $279.91.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued 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 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.72 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

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.