Vident Advisory LLC Has $5.09 Million Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Vident Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 10.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 17,414 shares of the electronics maker's stock after acquiring an additional 1,605 shares during the quarter. Vident Advisory LLC owned about 0.06% of Acuity Brands worth $5,087,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AYI. Durable Capital Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 158.9% during the 4th quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $317,977,000 after acquiring an additional 668,048 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $110,236,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 241.8% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 216,007 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $63,102,000 after acquiring an additional 152,807 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1,256.1% during the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 161,183 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $47,086,000 after acquiring an additional 149,297 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 135.8% during the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 180,272 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $52,663,000 after acquiring an additional 103,818 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Acuity Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI stock traded down $2.18 on Friday, hitting $260.22. 139,207 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 303,626. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The stock has a market cap of $8.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $216.81 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The company has a 50 day moving average of $251.91 and a 200 day moving average of $291.49.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.38 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.16%.

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.