Headlands Technologies LLC Purchases Shares of 332 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 332 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $97,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 644,109 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $188,211,000 after purchasing an additional 17,299 shares during the last quarter. Diametric Capital LP acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $220,000. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 50.5% during the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 161 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $326,452,000 after buying an additional 103,162 shares during the period. Finally, O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 12.9% during the fourth quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 10,181 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,974,000 after acquiring an additional 1,162 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 9.4 %

NYSE AYI opened at $233.15 on Monday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $294.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $304.28. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.38 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.16%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised 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 note on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $324.60.

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.