Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Bought by XTX Topco Ltd

XTX Topco Ltd grew its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 282.7% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 4,657 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,440 shares during the period. XTX Topco Ltd’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,124,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AYI. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $68,686,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 366.2% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $83,430,000 after purchasing an additional 271,485 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 187.8% in the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 330,331 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $79,755,000 after buying an additional 215,547 shares in the last quarter. Vision One Management Partners LP acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $21,901,000. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the first quarter worth $25,188,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the topic of several recent research reports. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $272.23 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.41. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $247.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $252.62. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.84 and a 52 week high of $273.36. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 company had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.50 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 18th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

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.