Man Group plc Raises Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Man Group plc raised its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 5.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 65,103 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,111 shares during the quarter. Man Group plc owned approximately 0.21% of Acuity Brands worth $19,019,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 16,407 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,120,979 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $327,471,000 after acquiring an additional 8,705 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake 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 worth $326,452,000 after acquiring an additional 103,162 shares during the last quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 158.9% in the fourth quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $317,977,000 after acquiring an additional 668,048 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 2.8% in 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on shares of Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $273.23 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $251.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $293.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.81 and a 1-year high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.38 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.