Ballentine Partners LLC Buys 34 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 3.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 911 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $266,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 303.8% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 21,000 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $5,070,000 after buying an additional 15,800 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 18.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 9,650 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,332,000 after acquiring an additional 1,494 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC grew its position in Acuity Brands by 978.8% during the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 30,844 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $7,447,000 after acquiring an additional 27,985 shares during the last quarter. AXA S.A. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 73.1% during the 2nd quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 34,004 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $8,210,000 after purchasing an additional 14,355 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in Acuity Brands by 16.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $106,201,000 after purchasing an additional 63,159 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on AYI. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $335.02 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.37 billion, a PE ratio of 24.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $315.91 and its 200-day moving average is $286.03.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company’s 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 directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

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.