Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 1,175 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYIFree Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 1,175 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $309,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Durable Capital Partners LP grew its position in Acuity Brands by 158.9% in the 4th quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $317,977,000 after buying an additional 668,048 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth $110,236,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 29,415.7% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 227,271 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $59,852,000 after acquiring an additional 226,501 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 241.8% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 216,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $63,102,000 after acquiring an additional 152,807 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1,256.1% during the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 161,183 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $47,086,000 after acquiring an additional 149,297 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased 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 report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Acuity Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $317.60.

Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $265.34 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $8.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.81 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $253.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $285.45.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYIGet Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.16%.

Acuity Brands Profile

(Free Report)

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.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI)

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