National Bank of Canada FI Decreases Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

National Bank of Canada FI lessened its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 43.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 107 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 82 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $29,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $3,717,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,050,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 427 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $118,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 352 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $97,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,541 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $613,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, 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 note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 4.0 %

Shares of AYI opened at $300.47 on Thursday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $199.47 and a 12-month high of $337.99. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $315.60 and a 200-day moving average price of $274.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.74 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 4.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.