Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB Takes Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor purchased 300 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $83,000.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $302.70 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $9.34 billion, a PE ratio of 22.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $315.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $275.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $199.47 and a 52-week high of $337.99.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.20%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

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.