Victory Capital Management Inc. Buys 10,470 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 105.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 20,363 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,470 shares during the quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned approximately 0.07% of Acuity Brands worth $4,916,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $68,686,000. Vision One Management Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $21,901,000. Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the first quarter valued at about $25,188,000. Interval Partners LP bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the first quarter valued at about $20,961,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,149,459 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $235,444,000 after purchasing an additional 45,666 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI opened at $262.54 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.34, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $244.97 and a 200-day moving average price of $252.18. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.84 and a twelve month high of $272.74.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The company had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.50 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 18th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.23%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 4.88%.

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.