Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Swedbank AB

Swedbank AB trimmed its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 8.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 72,740 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 6,315 shares during the period. Swedbank AB owned about 0.23% of Acuity Brands worth $21,250,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 18.3% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 9,650 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,332,000 after purchasing an additional 1,494 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the second quarter worth about $430,000. Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the second quarter valued at about $387,000. Creative Planning raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,764 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $909,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the period. Finally, Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 81.6% during the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 8,234 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,988,000 after acquiring an additional 3,700 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $332.38 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $10.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.48, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $316.93 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $289.16.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.20%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.01%.

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.