Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Shares Gap Up to $275.39

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) shares gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $275.39, but opened at $290.02. Acuity Brands shares last traded at $293.56, with a volume of 43,149 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird dropped 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. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $289.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $286.25.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $9.01 billion, a PE ratio of 23.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $248.84 and a 200-day moving average price of $253.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.15.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AYI. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,149,459 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $235,444,000 after purchasing an additional 45,666 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 835,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $201,728,000 after buying an additional 20,537 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $152,085,000 after buying an additional 20,832 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $106,201,000 after buying an additional 63,159 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 35.7% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $98,306,000 after buying an additional 107,171 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.