Versor Investments LP Takes $474,000 Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm acquired 1,623 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $474,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 40.9% during the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $296.94 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.19 billion, a PE ratio of 21.87, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The company’s fifty day moving average is $316.80 and its 200-day moving average is $300.61. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.72 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.23%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have commented on AYI shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

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.