Moody Aldrich Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Moody Aldrich Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 8,837 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $1,810,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,365,821 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $573,233,000 after purchasing an additional 17,459 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,313,389 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $627,225,000 after buying an additional 60,541 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,982,396 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $564,568,000 after buying an additional 25,598 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 19.3% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,208,990 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $228,862,000 after buying an additional 195,515 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 620.3% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,197,721 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $198,355,000 after buying an additional 1,031,432 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI traded down $0.24 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $266.01. 215,219 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 271,606. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $253.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $212.86. The company has a market cap of $8.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a current ratio of 2.59, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $149.30 and a 1 year high of $272.74.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 9th. The electronics maker reported $3.72 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.49. The firm had revenue of $934.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $935.14 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 9.81% and a return on equity of 21.22%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.04 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.23%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Dianne S. Mills sold 6,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.11, for a total value of $1,350,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,554 shares in the company, valued at $1,925,590.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Dianne S. Mills sold 6,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.11, for a total value of $1,350,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,554 shares in the company, valued at $1,925,590.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on AYI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $289.25.

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.