Bailard Inc. Grows Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Bailard Inc. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 14.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 2,879 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 355 shares during the quarter. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $590,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,365,821 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $573,233,000 after buying an additional 17,459 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 17.2% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,103,793 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $187,987,000 after purchasing an additional 161,818 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 41.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 844,969 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $143,907,000 after purchasing an additional 247,774 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 820,077 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $139,667,000 after purchasing an additional 89,192 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 35.8% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 709,647 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $120,585,000 after purchasing an additional 187,128 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Two research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $289.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Acuity Brands news, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 200 shares in the company, valued at $49,782. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Acuity Brands news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,782. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.2 %

AYI stock opened at $252.16 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $149.30 and a twelve month high of $272.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The firm has a market cap of $7.77 billion, a PE ratio of 21.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.49. The business has a 50 day moving average of $257.01 and a 200 day moving average of $219.57.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.23. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 9.81%. The company had revenue of $905.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $897.01 million. On average, research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.02%.

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.