Illumine Investment Management LLC Invests $784,000 in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Illumine Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 2,682 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $784,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AYI. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 6.6% in the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,508 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,485,000 after acquiring an additional 524 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $474,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $10,412,000. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 6,092 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,780,000 after purchasing an additional 467 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BankPlus Trust Department purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $69,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on AYI. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of 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 target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $299.19 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $316.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $299.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The company has a market cap of $9.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.64 and a 1-year high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.72 EPS. Analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend 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.