Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 991,500 shares, a growth of 28.6% from the February 28th total of 771,200 shares. Currently, 3.2% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 339,500 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on AYI. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Acuity Brands from $340.00 to $310.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. 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 company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $330.60.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AYI. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $906,930,000 after acquiring an additional 16,407 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,120,979 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $327,471,000 after purchasing an additional 8,705 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $326,452,000 after purchasing an additional 103,162 shares during the period. Durable Capital Partners LP lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 158.9% during the 4th quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $317,977,000 after purchasing an additional 668,048 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $266,865,000 after buying an additional 12,479 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Acuity Brands stock traded up $3.12 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $266.79. The stock had a trading volume of 413,234 shares, compared to its average volume of 279,339. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $299.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $304.54. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The stock has a market cap of $8.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.72 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.01%.

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.