Seven Eight Capital LP Purchases New Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Seven Eight Capital LP purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 2,818 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $757,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its position in Acuity Brands by 77.3% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. raised its position in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% in the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its position in Acuity Brands by 85.7% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 221 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. raised its position in Acuity Brands by 900.0% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday, June 28th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.00.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, Director Maya Leibman acquired 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 200 shares in the company, valued at $49,782. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI traded up $1.09 on Tuesday, reaching $257.60. 186,945 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 267,012. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.49 and a 1-year high of $272.74. The firm has a market cap of $7.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a 50-day moving average of $251.88 and a 200-day moving average of $249.87.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The business had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.50 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.23%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.88%.

Acuity Brands 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.