Stevens Capital Management LP Buys Shares of 1,091 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Stevens Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,091 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $319,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at $31,026,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $19,703,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of 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. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 345.0% in the 4th quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 72,761 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $21,404,000 after acquiring an additional 56,409 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $13,394,000. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $275.18 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $8.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.26, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $306.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $303.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.72 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. 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%.

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.