Atria Investments Inc Has $1.71 Million Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Atria Investments Inc trimmed its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,220 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 112 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,713,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 4,214.3% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 302 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 295 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. 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 note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.1 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $325.87 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $176.93 and a 12-month high of $337.99. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.40. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $293.41 and its 200-day simple moving average is $264.34.

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 the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.74 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.18%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.46%.

Acuity Brands Company 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.