Intrepid Capital Management Inc. Sells 8,420 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Intrepid Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 83.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,668 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 8,420 shares during the quarter. Intrepid Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $487,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 13.1% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 2,504 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $690,000 after purchasing an additional 290 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 92.6% during the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 6,566 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,808,000 after acquiring an additional 3,157 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $3,273,000. Atom Investors LP purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,710,000. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 33.3% in the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,754 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $483,000 after purchasing an additional 438 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. 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 note on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on Acuity Brands from $340.00 to $310.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $330.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI stock opened at $263.89 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a PE ratio of 19.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $299.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $304.54. 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 announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.01%.

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.