XTX Topco Ltd Decreases Stock Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

XTX Topco Ltd decreased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 20.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,707 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 950 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,021,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,865,000 after acquiring an additional 12,479 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 835,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $201,728,000 after purchasing an additional 20,537 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $152,085,000 after purchasing an additional 20,832 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $106,201,000 after purchasing an additional 63,159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 437,745 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $120,551,000 after purchasing an additional 30,581 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction 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 $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $319.41 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $313.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $271.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.86 billion, a PE ratio of 23.77, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $187.64 and a 1 year high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.74 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 4.46%.

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.