4,560 Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Purchased by Hancock Whitney Corp

Hancock Whitney Corp acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 4,560 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,101,000.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Blair William & Co. IL raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $386,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. raised its position in Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 10,903 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,233,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 5,999 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,148,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in shares of 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 buying an additional 61 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.8% during the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,541 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $613,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $272.23 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.15. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $247.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $252.54. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.84 and a 1-year high of $273.36.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.52 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.50 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

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