Quadrature Capital Ltd Grows Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Quadrature Capital Ltd increased its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 14.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,438 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,694 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $2,755,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Aurora Investment Counsel raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 5,938 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,011,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,847 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $378,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 10,903 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,233,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 77.3% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 467 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $96,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,782. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on AYI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $289.25.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.4 %

AYI stock traded down $0.89 during trading on Friday, hitting $251.01. 180,369 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 214,218. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $258.00 and its two-hundred day moving average is $237.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 1.96. The stock has a market cap of $7.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.44. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $154.72 and a 1 year high of $272.74.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $905.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $897.01 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 9.81% and a return on equity of 21.22%. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.48 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.02%.

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.