Moran Wealth Management LLC Sells 263 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Moran Wealth Management LLC reduced its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 24,948 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 263 shares during the quarter. Moran Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $7,288,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Covestor Ltd increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 12.7% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 427 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $118,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 9.8% during the third quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 18,275 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $5,033,000 after acquiring an additional 1,636 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 16.6% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 352 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $97,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 2.9% during the third quarter. Apollon Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,425 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $943,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $462,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 4.9 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $268.28 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.76, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $314.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $302.70. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.72 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on AYI shares. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

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.