Mariner LLC Purchases 722 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Mariner LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 52.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,111 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 722 shares during the quarter. Mariner LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $617,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AYI. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,026,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $83,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 24.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 95,551 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $26,314,000 after buying an additional 18,919 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,849,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the subject of several recent research reports. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of AYI stock opened at $243.76 on Thursday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.81 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The company has a market capitalization of $7.53 billion, a PE ratio of 17.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $258.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $296.67. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.38 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.28%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.16%.

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.