Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Sells 1,284 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. decreased its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 10.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 11,095 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 1,284 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $3,241,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 40.9% in the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $296.94 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 debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.87, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $316.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $300.61.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.72 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.23%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.