Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by SVB Wealth LLC

SVB Wealth LLC reduced its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 37.3% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,390 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 1,421 shares during the period. SVB Wealth LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $642,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Acuity Brands by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,149,459 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $235,444,000 after purchasing an additional 45,666 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Acuity Brands by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 625,077 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $128,035,000 after purchasing an additional 36,488 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $68,686,000. Seizert Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Acuity Brands by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 295,917 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $60,613,000 after purchasing an additional 35,456 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Trust Walden Corp increased its position in Acuity Brands by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Boston Trust Walden Corp now owns 224,289 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $45,941,000 after purchasing an additional 4,694 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.2 %

Acuity Brands stock traded up $0.60 during trading on Monday, reaching $248.93. The stock had a trading volume of 175,570 shares, compared to its average volume of 266,916. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $156.49 and a 52-week high of $272.74. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $250.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $250.78. 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 stock has a market cap of $7.66 billion, a PE ratio of 20.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.42.

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

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 18th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.24%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.