Gotham Asset Management LLC Purchases 4,395 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Gotham Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 38.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,812 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,395 shares during the period. Gotham Asset Management LLC owned approximately 0.05% of Acuity Brands worth $4,619,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $906,930,000 after purchasing an additional 16,407 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,120,979 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $327,471,000 after buying an additional 8,705 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $326,452,000 after acquiring an additional 103,162 shares in the last quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 158.9% during the 4th quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $317,977,000 after acquiring an additional 668,048 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 644,109 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $188,211,000 after acquiring an additional 17,299 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI stock opened at $271.72 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $251.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $293.56. The company has a market capitalization of $8.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $216.81 and a 52-week high of $345.30.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th were paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.16%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on AYI shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price target on Acuity Brands in a report on Friday, April 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Company 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.