Ritholtz Wealth Management Buys 606 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

by · The Markets Daily

Ritholtz Wealth Management increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI – Free Report) by 14.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 4,824 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 606 shares during the quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,329,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 38.1% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 51,890 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $13,913,000 after acquiring an additional 14,329 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 148.4% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 4,397 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,166,000 after acquiring an additional 2,627 shares during the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 8.0% in the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $6,965,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 15.0% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 42,027 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $11,281,000 after acquiring an additional 5,474 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Seven Eight Capital LP bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the first quarter valued at approximately $757,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $308.00 on Monday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.84 and a 12 month high of $310.96. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $259.13 and its 200 day simple moving average is $255.57. The firm has a market cap of $9.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.04, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.74 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.19%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.88%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $324.00.

View Our Latest Research Report on AYI

Acuity Brands Profile

(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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