Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Shares Down 6.5% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) were down 6.5% on Monday . The stock traded as low as $302.70 and last traded at $310.50. Approximately 113,456 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 67% from the average daily volume of 346,702 shares. The stock had previously closed at $332.22.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on AYI. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.1 %

The firm has a 50-day moving average of $316.68 and a 200 day moving average of $290.95. The company has a market cap of $10.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.17 dividend. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $40,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.