Machina Capital S.A.S. Purchases New Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Machina Capital S.A.S. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI – Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 379 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $69,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 6.2% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 20,688 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $3,916,000 after acquiring an additional 1,200 shares in the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 12,834 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,429,000 after buying an additional 379 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,982,396 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $564,568,000 after buying an additional 25,598 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,395,000. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 9.1% in the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 19,747 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $3,850,000 after buying an additional 1,647 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 95.56% of the company’s stock.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the subject of several analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 23rd. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $192.00 to $175.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 5th. SpectralCast reiterated a “reiterates” rating on shares of Acuity Brands in a research note on Friday, June 30th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of Acuity Brands in a research note on Tuesday, April 11th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $180.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Wednesday, April 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $189.14.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 2.2 %

AYI opened at $165.16 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $159.83 and a 200 day moving average of $171.32. The company has a market cap of $5.15 billion, a PE ratio of 14.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.30 and a beta of 1.57. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $149.30 and a 12 month high of $202.90. The company has a current ratio of 2.26, a quick ratio of 1.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 18th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.48%.

About Acuity Brands

(Free Report)

Acuity Brands, Inc provides lighting and building management solutions in North America and internationally. The company operates through 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 Lithonia Lighting, Holophane, Peerless, Gotham, Mark Architectural Lighting, Winona Lighting, Juno, Indy, Aculux, Healthcare Lighting, Hydrel, American Electric Lighting, Sunoptics, eldoLED, nLight, Sensor Switch, IOTA, A-Light, Cyclone, Eureka, Lumniaire LED, Luminis, Dark to Light, RELOC Wiring Solutions, and OPTOTRONIC brands.

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