Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 842 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 842 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $246,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $62,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on AYI shares. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $335.57 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $315.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $284.63. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $337.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.39 billion, a PE ratio of 24.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 EPS for the current year.

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.