Aigen Investment Management LP Reduces Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Aigen Investment Management LP cut its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 15.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,480 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 279 shares during the quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $432,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at about $31,026,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $19,703,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 741.8% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 71,744 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $20,959,000 after acquiring an additional 63,221 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $10,412,000. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in Acuity Brands by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $172,654,000 after purchasing an additional 34,032 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on AYI. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $282.06 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $314.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $301.67. 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 (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.72 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.24%. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

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.