AQR Capital Management LLC Raises Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 22.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 455,427 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 82,947 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $133,044,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $3,849,000. Merit Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $232,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $19,703,000. Diversified Trust Co raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 83.1% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 5,119 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,495,000 after acquiring an additional 2,323 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 6,500 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,899,000 after acquiring an additional 909 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI stock opened at $241.37 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a market capitalization of $7.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.77, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $259.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $297.04. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $216.81 and a twelve month high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.38 EPS. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.16%.

Acuity Brands Company 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.