Systematic Financial Management LP Cuts Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Systematic Financial Management LP cut its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 10.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 25,766 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 2,849 shares during the quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP owned approximately 0.08% of Acuity Brands worth $6,221,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.6% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,764 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $909,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the second quarter worth about $387,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the second quarter worth about $430,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 353.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $41,934,000 after purchasing an additional 135,350 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 16.7% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $106,201,000 after purchasing an additional 63,159 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have commented on AYI. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $289.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $286.25.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $270.00 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $248.47 and its 200-day moving average is $253.04. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $156.84 and a 12-month high of $275.63. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The firm has a market cap of $8.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The company had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.52 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.50 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

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.