Edgestream Partners L.P. Takes $537,000 Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Edgestream Partners L.P. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 2,225 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $537,000.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the second quarter worth $41,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% in the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 900.0% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Evermay Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $61,000. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.1 %

Acuity Brands stock opened at $272.23 on Monday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.84 and a 52 week high of $273.36. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $247.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $252.54. 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 company has a market capitalization of $8.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released 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. The business had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $996.52 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.50 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 18th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

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.