Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Short Interest Up 8.3% in January

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) was the target of a significant growth in short interest during the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 856,500 shares, a growth of 8.3% from the January 15th total of 790,800 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 314,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.7 days. Approximately 2.8% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price 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. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Ashford Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $13,789,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 154,163 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $45,036,000 after purchasing an additional 493 shares during the period. Vident Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 17,414 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $5,087,000 after purchasing an additional 1,605 shares during the period. WBI Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $616,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

AYI stock traded up $1.87 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $330.96. The stock had a trading volume of 17,610 shares, compared to its average volume of 310,284. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.25 billion, a PE ratio of 24.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.40. 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 stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $317.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $295.77. Acuity Brands has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $3.72 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Acuity Brands 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. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

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.