Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Amalgamated Bank

Amalgamated Bank lessened its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 15.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,927 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 3,173 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $4,328,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% during the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 900.0% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evermay Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $61,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently weighed in on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.1 %

AYI stock opened at $272.23 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $247.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $252.59. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $156.84 and a 12 month high of $273.36. The company has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.15.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The firm had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $996.52 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.50 EPS. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 18th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.88%.

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.