Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Holdings Trimmed by Aurora Investment Counsel

Aurora Investment Counsel cut its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 45.8% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,097 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 2,612 shares during the quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $748,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $649,000. US Bancorp DE lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 8.9% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,739 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $766,000 after acquiring an additional 304 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 246.0% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 9,900 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,027,000 after acquiring an additional 7,039 shares in the last quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 68,516 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $14,034,000 after acquiring an additional 2,791 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 23,958 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $4,907,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on AYI shares. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $289.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $286.25.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $275.42 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $156.84 and a one year high of $275.95. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $248.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $253.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.47 billion, a PE ratio of 22.39, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

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.