Virtu Financial LLC Invests $687,000 in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 2,354 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $687,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,210,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $86,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 398 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $116,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 951 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $278,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $275.18 on Tuesday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $306.52 and a 200-day moving average of $303.82. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.52 billion, a PE ratio of 20.26, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.72 EPS. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Acuity Brands 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.