Centiva Capital LP Acquires Shares of 8,186 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Centiva Capital LP purchased a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 8,186 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $2,391,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $232,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $19,703,000. Diversified Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 83.1% in the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 5,119 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,495,000 after acquiring an additional 2,323 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 6,500 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,899,000 after purchasing an additional 909 shares in the last quarter. Finally, McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 6.3% in the 4th quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 22,620 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $6,608,000 after acquiring an additional 1,335 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price target on Acuity Brands in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI traded up $13.34 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $269.90. 67,489 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 303,005. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $252.02 and a 200 day moving average price of $294.07. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.81 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The company has a market cap of $8.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.38 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio is currently 5.16%.

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.