Interval Partners LP Takes $20.96 Million Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Interval Partners LP purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 78,000 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $20,961,000. Interval Partners LP owned approximately 0.25% of Acuity Brands as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,149,459 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $235,444,000 after acquiring an additional 45,666 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 625,077 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $128,035,000 after acquiring an additional 36,488 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $68,686,000. Seizert Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 13.6% during the 4th quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 295,917 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $60,613,000 after acquiring an additional 35,456 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 9.9% during the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 224,326 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $60,283,000 after acquiring an additional 20,115 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $249.02. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 197,462 shares, compared to its average volume of 266,437. The company has a 50 day moving average of $250.52 and a 200 day moving average of $250.95. The stock has a market cap of $7.66 billion, a PE ratio of 20.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.42. 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 12-month low of $156.49 and a 12-month high of $272.74.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $996.52 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.50 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 18th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.