Value Holdings Management CO. LLC Has $6.13 Million Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Value Holdings Management CO. LLC raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 10.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 21,000 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Acuity Brands accounts for 1.1% of Value Holdings Management CO. LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd biggest position. Value Holdings Management CO. LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $6,134,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,865,000 after buying an additional 12,479 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $152,085,000 after acquiring an additional 20,832 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 5.7% during the third 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. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Acuity Brands by 16.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $106,201,000 after purchasing an additional 63,159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 437,745 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $120,551,000 after purchasing an additional 30,581 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the topic of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective 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 and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI traded down $0.05 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $330.70. 263,445 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 340,041. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.40. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $315.63 and a 200 day moving average of $283.45. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.72 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.