Two Sigma Advisers LP Buys 16,900 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 26.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 81,700 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,900 shares during the quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP owned 0.26% of Acuity Brands worth $22,499,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 291.2% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 6,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,752,000 after buying an additional 4,854 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter valued at $376,000. CWM LLC grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 53.5% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,326 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $320,000 after acquiring an additional 462 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 17.9% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,108 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,716,000 after acquiring an additional 1,080 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Trust Co raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 145.5% in the 2nd quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 2,796 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $675,000 after acquiring an additional 1,657 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 in the company, valued at $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the subject of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three investment 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of AYI stock opened at $324.73 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $10.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.39. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $312.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $271.49. 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, Inc. has a 12-month low of $183.95 and a 12-month high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.74 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

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

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.