Swedbank AB Sells 8,081 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Swedbank AB trimmed its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 9.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 79,055 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 8,081 shares during the quarter. Swedbank AB’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $21,771,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the first quarter worth $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 4,214.3% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 302 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 295 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 14.7% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.2 %

Acuity Brands stock opened at $305.00 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $264.08 and a 200 day simple moving average of $256.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.80, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.84 and a 52 week high of $312.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.74 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.88%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $324.00.

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.