Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Barclays PLC

Barclays PLC reduced its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 15.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 67,533 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 12,218 shares during the period. Barclays PLC owned approximately 0.22% of Acuity Brands worth $18,598,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. MML Investors Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.0% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 8,610 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,371,000 after buying an additional 923 shares during the last quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 213.4% in the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 5,040 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,388,000 after purchasing an additional 3,432 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,026,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $279,000. Finally, Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.5% during the 3rd quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 24,186 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $6,595,000 after purchasing an additional 367 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on AYI shares. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised 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, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three research 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.6 %

AYI opened at $317.74 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $196.38 and a twelve month high of $337.99. The company has a market cap of $9.81 billion, a PE ratio of 23.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $315.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $273.59.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.74 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

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

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.