Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Acquires 78 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,379 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $3,409,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 4,214.3% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 302 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $73,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $325.87 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $176.93 and a 52 week high of $337.99. The company has a market capitalization of $10.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.25, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $293.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $264.34. 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 (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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during 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 was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.74 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company 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 0.18%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report 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, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.00.

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.