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

Corient Private Wealth LLC lessened its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 12,080 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 73 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $3,528,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report 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 report on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Finally, 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 report on Thursday, January 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.2 %

AYI opened at $264.17 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market cap of $8.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.45, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $307.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $303.18.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 5.01%.

Acuity Brands Company 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.