GAMMA Investing LLC Takes $108,000 Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 526 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $108,000.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AYI. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 77.3% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 85.7% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 221 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 402 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $68,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 508.9% during the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 341 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $70,000 after purchasing an additional 285 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Janiczek Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 61.3% during the 4th quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 379 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $252.16 on Monday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $149.30 and a 1-year high of $272.74. The company has a market cap of $7.77 billion, a PE ratio of 21.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 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. The company has a 50-day moving average of $257.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $219.84.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $905.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $897.01 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 9.81% and a return on equity of 21.22%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Acuity Brands news, Director Maya Leibman purchased 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,782. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Acuity Brands news, Director Maya Leibman purchased 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,782. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Acuity Brands 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.