Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. Grows Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 18,275 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,636 shares during the quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $5,033,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.3% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,717,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.2% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,050,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 3.5% during the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $386,000 after buying an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew 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 buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.8% in the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,541 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $613,000 after acquiring an additional 69 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer increased 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. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $333.69 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.30 billion, a PE ratio of 24.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.40. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $286.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $262.27. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $174.67 and a twelve month high of $334.66.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.74 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 earnings per share 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 issued a $0.15 dividend. 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%.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.