AlphaQuest LLC Reduces Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

AlphaQuest LLC trimmed its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 38.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,805 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 3,668 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,696,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at about $3,849,000. Hancock Whitney Corp grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 42.0% in the third quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,784,000 after purchasing an additional 1,917 shares during the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at about $484,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at about $813,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $462,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $282.06 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $314.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $302.11.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.72 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

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.