Oak Thistle LLC Invests $516,000 in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 1,768 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $516,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 353.1% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $41,934,000 after purchasing an additional 135,350 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,026,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 35.7% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $98,306,000 after buying an additional 107,171 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Acuity Brands by 16.7% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $106,201,000 after acquiring an additional 63,159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its position in Acuity Brands by 296.2% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 47,559 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $11,493,000 after acquiring an additional 35,556 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target 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. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI opened at $331.40 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.40, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $337.99. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $315.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $282.49.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued 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 net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.72 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.