Amalgamated Bank Reduces Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Amalgamated Bank decreased its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 14,901 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 104 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $4,353,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its position in Acuity Brands by 40.9% during the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $296.94 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The stock has a market cap 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 company has a 50-day moving average of $316.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $300.14. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $217.64 and a one year high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.72 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.01%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.