Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Purchased by Renaissance Technologies LLC

Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 22.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 100,100 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 18,600 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC owned about 0.32% of Acuity Brands worth $29,242,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $906,930,000 after purchasing an additional 16,407 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 644,109 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $188,211,000 after acquiring an additional 17,299 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 603,446 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $176,285,000 after acquiring an additional 61,765 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 436,060 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $127,386,000 after acquiring an additional 9,513 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on AYI. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on shares of Acuity Brands in a research note on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $239.68 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.81 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $281.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $302.04. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.41 billion, a PE ratio of 17.65, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43.

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

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.28%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 5.16%.

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.