Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations Takes Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations acquired a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor acquired 3,061 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $894,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its position in Acuity Brands by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,210,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 16.3% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $86,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 398 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $116,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 951 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $278,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.1 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $268.39 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $8.31 billion, a PE ratio of 19.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The company’s 50 day moving average is $303.24 and its two-hundred day moving average is $303.57.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share 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 quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AYI. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $339.80.

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.