FORA Capital LLC Purchases Shares of 3,646 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 3,646 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,065,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AYI. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $83,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 24.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 95,551 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $26,314,000 after buying an additional 18,919 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Acuity Brands by 10.0% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,110 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $581,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Matrix Trust Co boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 479.2% during the 4th quarter. Matrix Trust Co now owns 307 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $90,000 after acquiring an additional 254 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price 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. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price target on Acuity Brands in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.1 %

AYI stock opened at $256.60 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.81 and a 52 week high of $345.30. 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 company’s 50-day simple moving average is $252.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $294.12. The company has a market capitalization of $7.93 billion, a PE ratio of 18.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60.

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

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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 of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.27%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.16%.

About Acuity Brands

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.