837 Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Bought by Commerce Bank

Commerce Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 837 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $231,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in Acuity Brands by 366.2% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $83,430,000 after purchasing an additional 271,485 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 187.8% during 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. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 353.1% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $41,934,000 after buying an additional 135,350 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 35.7% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $98,306,000 after buying an additional 107,171 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter valued at $25,188,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI opened at $320.16 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.40. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $305.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $268.53. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $176.93 and a 52-week high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.74 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.46%.

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.