Burney Co. Purchases New Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Burney Co. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 1,129 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $330,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in Acuity Brands by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $86,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in Acuity Brands by 0.3% in the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,717,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Creative Planning boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.2% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,050,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.7% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 427 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $118,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.6% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 352 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $97,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.0 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $330.70 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $10.24 billion, a PE ratio of 24.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $315.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $283.73. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $337.99. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on AYI. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

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.