Sage Mountain Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Sage Mountain Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,717 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $502,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at about $3,849,000. Hancock Whitney Corp boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 42.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,784,000 after purchasing an additional 1,917 shares during the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $484,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $813,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $462,000. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $268.19 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $313.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $302.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The firm has a market cap of $8.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.75, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.72 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.01%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the topic of several recent research reports. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

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.