Qsemble Capital Management LP Acquires Shares of 2,689 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Qsemble Capital Management LP bought a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,689 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $649,000.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.5% during the second 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 period. Marco Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 19.9% during the second quarter. Marco Investment Management LLC now owns 1,805 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $436,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. AdvisorShares Investments LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the second quarter valued at approximately $441,000. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 8.0% during the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $6,965,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quest Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 202.9% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 9,388 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,267,000 after purchasing an additional 6,289 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 1.5 %

Acuity Brands stock opened at $258.04 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.84 and a 52 week high of $272.74. The stock has a market cap of $7.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.98, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.41. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $244.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $252.07. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The firm had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $996.52 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.50 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 18th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.23%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.88%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $279.00.

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.