Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC

Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC cut its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 2.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,699 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 79 shares during the quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,081,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $266,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,210,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $86,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.3% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,717,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.2% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,050,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI stock opened at $327.09 on Wednesday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $316.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $287.99. The company has a market capitalization of $10.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.09, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.72 EPS. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.21%. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.42%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.