Ballentine Partners LLC Acquires Shares of 773 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund bought 773 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $208,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Boston Trust Walden Corp lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 224,289 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $45,941,000 after acquiring an additional 4,694 shares during the period. Quantedge Capital Pte Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth $737,000. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 17.2% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,103,793 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $187,987,000 after acquiring an additional 161,818 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 25.8% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 47,372 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $9,703,000 after acquiring an additional 9,729 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 246.0% during the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 9,900 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,027,000 after purchasing an additional 7,039 shares in 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 equities research analysts have weighed in on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective 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. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.75.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.9 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $239.77 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.38 billion, a PE ratio of 20.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.44. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $154.72 and a 52-week high of $272.74. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $254.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $243.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.23. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 9.81% and a return on equity of 21.22%. The business had revenue of $905.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $897.01 million. On average, equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.