Stevens Capital Management LP Acquires Shares of 1,091 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Stevens Capital Management LP bought a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 1,091 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $319,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth about $3,849,000. Hancock Whitney Corp lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 42.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,784,000 after acquiring an additional 1,917 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $232,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 213.4% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 5,040 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,388,000 after purchasing an additional 3,432 shares during the period. Finally, Smith Group Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $19,703,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 4.2 %

AYI opened at $275.18 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market cap of $8.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.26, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $306.52 and a 200-day moving average price of $303.82.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.72 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on AYI. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.