Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC Trims Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC lessened its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 36.2% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,392 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 789 shares during the period. Alpha DNA Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $336,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AYI. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in Acuity Brands by 366.2% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $83,430,000 after acquiring an additional 271,485 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its holdings 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 worth $79,755,000 after purchasing an additional 215,547 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 35.7% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $98,306,000 after purchasing an additional 107,171 shares in the last quarter. Vision One Management Partners LP bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $21,901,000. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the first quarter valued at about $25,188,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $289.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price 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, StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $286.25.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $268.15 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm has a market cap of $8.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.80, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.84 and a twelve month high of $275.05. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $247.91 and a 200-day moving average price of $252.88.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The company’s revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.50 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.