Sycomore Asset Management Has $2.07 Million Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Sycomore Asset Management boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,669 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 633 shares during the quarter. Sycomore Asset Management’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $2,069,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp grew its position in Acuity Brands by 148.4% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 4,397 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,166,000 after buying an additional 2,627 shares in the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp grew its position in Acuity Brands by 8.0% during the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $6,965,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in Acuity Brands by 15.0% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 42,027 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $11,281,000 after buying an additional 5,474 shares in the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the first quarter worth about $757,000. Finally, Atria Investments Inc bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the first quarter worth about $1,706,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on AYI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI traded up $0.62 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $331.32. 51,277 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 254,979. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $176.93 and a 52 week high of $337.99. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $291.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $263.88. The firm has a market cap of $10.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.74 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.46%.

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.