Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Holdings Lowered by Yousif Capital Management LLC

Yousif Capital Management LLC cut its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 15,057 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 99 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $3,084,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth approximately $108,000. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 11.9% in the 4th quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,097 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $839,000 after buying an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.2% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 467 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $96,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 70.6% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 5,800 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,188,000 after buying an additional 2,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 508.9% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 341 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 285 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $252.16 on Monday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $149.30 and a 1-year high of $272.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.08, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a current ratio of 2.59, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $257.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $219.84.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In related news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Maya Leibman acquired 200 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the purchase, 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 currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $289.25.

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.