Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Stake Lowered by Private Client Services LLC

Private Client Services LLC cut its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 60.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,870 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 2,843 shares during the quarter. Private Client Services LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $492,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AYI. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 6,500 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,899,000 after purchasing an additional 909 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 22.4% in the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 134,591 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $39,318,000 after buying an additional 24,603 shares during the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP raised its position in Acuity Brands by 47.5% during the fourth quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 2,473 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $722,000 after acquiring an additional 796 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its position in Acuity Brands by 109.6% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 20,901 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $6,106,000 after acquiring an additional 10,928 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 60,500 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $17,674,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Wall Street Zen raised Acuity Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price target on Acuity Brands in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $261.44 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $216.81 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $251.37 and a 200 day simple moving average of $289.88. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a market cap of $8.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.38 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.16%.

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.