Picton Mahoney Asset Management Invests $154,000 in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 640 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $154,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Blair William & Co. IL raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $386,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 10,903 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,233,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 19.1% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 349 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $94,000 after buying an additional 56 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 44.4% in the 1st quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 192 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $52,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aurora Investment Counsel grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 5,999 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,148,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the company 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $254.70 on Monday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $242.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $251.62. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.49 and a 12 month high of $272.74. The company has a market cap of $7.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $968.10 million for 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 company’s revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.50 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 18th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.24%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.88%.

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.