Pacer Advisors Inc. Acquires 30,581 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 7.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 437,745 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 30,581 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. owned approximately 1.42% of Acuity Brands worth $120,551,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 366.2% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $83,430,000 after acquiring an additional 271,485 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 187.8% during the second quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 330,331 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $79,755,000 after buying an additional 215,547 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 353.1% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $41,934,000 after purchasing an additional 135,350 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the first quarter valued at approximately $25,188,000. Finally, Interval Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter worth $20,961,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AYI. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value 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 $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 1.5 %

AYI opened at $320.41 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $176.93 and a 12 month high of $337.99. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $300.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $266.76. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market cap of $9.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.84, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.74 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.46%.

About Acuity Brands

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.