Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Lathrop Investment Management Corp

Lathrop Investment Management Corp lowered its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 58,546 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 881 shares during the period. Acuity Brands comprises about 3.0% of Lathrop Investment Management Corp’s holdings, making the stock its 11th largest position. Lathrop Investment Management Corp owned 0.19% of Acuity Brands worth $16,123,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AYI. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the first quarter worth about $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth about $35,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the second quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth about $62,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction 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 $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 available at this link. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. 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. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI stock opened at $320.41 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $300.56 and a 200-day moving average of $266.76. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $176.93 and a 12-month high of $337.99. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a market cap of $9.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.84, a PEG ratio of 2.04 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.74 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.46%.

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.