Geode Capital Management LLC Has $172.65 Million Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 34,032 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC owned 2.03% of Acuity Brands worth $172,654,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AYI. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted 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 worth $3,717,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.2% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,050,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.7% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 427 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $118,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.6% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 352 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $97,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Acuity Brands by 2.8% during the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,541 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $613,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, 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 legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on AYI. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on 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 upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of AYI stock opened at $317.74 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $196.38 and a fifty-two week high of $337.99. The company has a market cap of $9.81 billion, a PE ratio of 23.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $315.34 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $273.73.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.74 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.46%.

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.