Gotham Asset Management LLC Raises Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Gotham Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 38.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 15,812 shares of the electronics maker's stock after buying an additional 4,395 shares during the period. Gotham Asset Management LLC owned about 0.05% of Acuity Brands worth $4,619,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,210,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 13.1% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 398 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $116,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 951 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $278,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. Finally, Bailard Inc. lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 1,896 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $554,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price target 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NYSE:AYI traded down $1.90 on Monday, hitting $271.24. 106,571 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 303,156. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $251.74 and a 200-day simple moving average of $292.99. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.81 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The company has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a PE ratio of 19.97, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.