Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Acquired by TD Private Client Wealth LLC

TD Private Client Wealth LLC boosted its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 12.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,643 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 181 shares during the quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $452,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $6,965,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 42.0% in the third quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,784,000 after purchasing an additional 1,917 shares during the period. Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at $484,000. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 15.0% during the third quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 21,285 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $5,862,000 after purchasing an additional 2,773 shares during the period. Finally, Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth about $813,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on AYI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $317.74 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $315.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $273.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.64, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $196.38 and a 52 week high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.74 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 4.46%.

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.