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Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Acquired by Tower Research Capital LLC TRC

Acuity Brands logo with Construction background

Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 176.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,547 shares of the electronics maker's stock after acquiring an additional 1,627 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC's holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $744,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $3,849,000. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $232,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth $19,703,000. Diversified Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 83.1% in the fourth 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. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 6,500 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,899,000 after acquiring an additional 909 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird reduced 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 report on Friday, April 4th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased 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. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on shares of Acuity Brands in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $317.60.

Get Our Latest Research Report on AYI

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI traded up $2.06 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $243.76. 422,081 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 301,697. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $216.81 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $259.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $297.04. The stock has a market cap of $7.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.95, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43.

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 analysts' consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.38 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.16%.

About Acuity Brands

(Free Report)

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.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI)

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