Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Has $9.58 Million Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 35,639 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 203 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. owned approximately 0.12% of Acuity Brands worth $9,577,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 77.3% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% during the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 85.7% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 221 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the period. Finally, Assetmark Inc. grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 900.0% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE AYI traded up $3.64 on Wednesday, hitting $252.66. 29,690 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 264,802. The company has a market capitalization of $7.77 billion, a PE ratio of 20.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.15. The business’s fifty day moving average is $250.19 and its 200 day moving average is $251.12. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.49 and a 52 week high of $272.74.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

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 $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 18th. Acuity Brands’s 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.