Miracle Mile Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Miracle Mile Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 690 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $202,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at about $215,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $152,085,000 after buying an additional 20,832 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 303.8% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 21,000 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $5,070,000 after buying an additional 15,800 shares during the period. Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the second quarter worth approximately $537,000. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 10.2% in the 2nd quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 7,167 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,730,000 after acquiring an additional 666 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 1.6 %

AYI opened at $331.40 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $337.99. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $315.48 and a 200 day moving average price of $282.49. 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 company has a market cap of $10.26 billion, a PE ratio of 24.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.72 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

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.