Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Buys Shares of 11,886 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund purchased 11,886 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $3,273,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $3,717,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. Creative Planning increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.2% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,050,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 427 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $118,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 352 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $97,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,541 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $613,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on AYI. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $322.07 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $308.42 and its 200-day simple moving average is $269.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.96, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $181.18 and a twelve month high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.74 EPS. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.46%.

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.