Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Swiss National Bank

Swiss National Bank decreased its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 60,000 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 600 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.19% of Acuity Brands worth $16,523,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 148.4% in the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 4,397 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,166,000 after buying an additional 2,627 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 221.2% in the first quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 5,988 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,609,000 after buying an additional 4,124 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 9.3% in the first quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 3,451 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $927,000 after buying an additional 294 shares during the period. BOKF NA raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5.8% in the first quarter. BOKF NA now owns 9,380 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,487,000 after buying an additional 513 shares during the period. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 4.9% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 23,789 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $6,394,000 after buying an additional 1,108 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $326.24 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $301.93 and a 200 day simple moving average of $267.23. The firm has a market cap of $10.07 billion, a PE ratio of 24.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $176.93 and a 12-month high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.74 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.18%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

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.