Federated Hermes Inc. Sells 487 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Federated Hermes Inc. decreased its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 3.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 12,676 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 487 shares during the quarter. Federated Hermes Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $2,596,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 77.3% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 85.7% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 221 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 20.0% during the third quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 402 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 61.3% during the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 379 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $78,000 after buying an additional 144 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 48.7% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 788 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $161,000 after buying an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $289.25.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In related news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $248.91 per share, for a total transaction of $49,782.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,782. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.2 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $252.16 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $149.30 and a fifty-two week high of $272.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 1.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.77 billion, a PE ratio of 21.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.49. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $257.01 and its 200-day simple moving average is $219.57.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.23. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 9.81%. The business had revenue of $905.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $897.01 million. Sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

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.