Mutual of America Capital Management LLC Lowers Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 4.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 17,463 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 720 shares during the period. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $4,216,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Edgestream Partners L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $537,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 303.8% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 21,000 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $5,070,000 after buying an additional 15,800 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $152,085,000 after buying an additional 20,832 shares in the last quarter. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $215,000. Finally, Guardian Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Guardian Wealth Management Inc. now owns 8,729 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,107,000 after buying an additional 135 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $272.23 on Monday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.84 and a twelve month high of $273.36. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $247.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $252.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.13, a PEG ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.41. 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 (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The business had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.52 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.50 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.