Mather Group LLC. Decreases Stock Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Mather Group LLC. lowered its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 27.9% 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 681 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 263 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $187,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% during the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the second quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 4,214.3% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 302 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $73,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 14.7% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.8 %

NYSE AYI opened at $307.87 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $156.84 and a one year high of $310.96. The firm has a market cap of $9.47 billion, a PE ratio of 25.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $257.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $255.45. 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 results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) 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 firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.74 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current year.

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 0.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.88%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $324.00.

About Acuity Brands

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.