Apella Capital LLC Buys New Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Apella Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 1,198 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $283,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% during the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 44.4% during the 1st quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 192 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $52,000 after buying an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 85.7% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 221 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $295.00 to $260.00 in a report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded down $1.60 on Wednesday, reaching $222.88. The stock had a trading volume of 158,110 shares, compared to its average volume of 263,522. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $247.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $251.39. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.49 and a 1 year high of $272.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.25, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $996.52 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.50 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 18th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.27%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.88%.

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.