Pacer Advisors Inc. Grows Stock Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 437,745 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 30,581 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $120,551,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AYI. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in Acuity Brands by 366.2% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $83,430,000 after purchasing an additional 271,485 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 187.8% in the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 330,331 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $79,755,000 after buying an additional 215,547 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 353.1% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $41,934,000 after purchasing an additional 135,350 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the first quarter worth $25,188,000. Finally, Interval Partners LP purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the first quarter valued at about $20,961,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. 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 report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $320.41 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $176.93 and a 52-week high of $337.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $300.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $266.76.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.74 EPS. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.19%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 4.46%.

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.