4,713 Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Purchased by Private Client Services LLC

Private Client Services LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,713 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,377,000.

Other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at $35,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $62,000. Finally, Quarry LP grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 229.7% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 244 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 2.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI stock traded up $6.98 on Wednesday, reaching $310.85. The company had a trading volume of 280,779 shares, compared to its average volume of 446,905. The company’s fifty day moving average is $314.79 and its 200 day moving average is $279.68. The company has a market cap of $9.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.13, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $214.32 and a 1 year high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently commented on AYI. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective 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. Oppenheimer boosted 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. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $323.00.

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.