Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Purchased by Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 298.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 25,500 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 19,100 shares during the quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board owned about 0.08% of Acuity Brands worth $6,157,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% during 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 in the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the second quarter worth $41,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 900.0% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 4,214.3% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 302 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 295 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $289.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird dropped 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. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $286.25.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $272.46 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $247.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $252.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.77. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $156.84 and a one year high of $275.05. The company has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a PE ratio of 22.15, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $996.52 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.50 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.