Bailard Inc. Acquires 355 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Bailard Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 14.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,879 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 355 shares during the quarter. Bailard Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $590,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Aurora Investment Counsel lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 5,938 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,011,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,847 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $378,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 77.3% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. SouthState Corp lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 1,854 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $316,000 after buying an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 467 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $96,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AYI. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $289.25.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $252.16 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $257.01 and its 200 day moving average is $219.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 1.96. The firm has a market cap of $7.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.08, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.49. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $149.30 and a one year high of $272.74.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $905.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $897.01 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 9.81%. As a group, research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.48 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Maya Leibman acquired 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at $49,782. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Acuity Brands news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,782. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Acuity Brands

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.