Principal Financial Group Inc. Lowers Stock Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 29.9% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 71,230 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 30,354 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $19,616,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 366.2% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $83,430,000 after buying an additional 271,485 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 187.8% during the second quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 330,331 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $79,755,000 after acquiring an additional 215,547 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 353.1% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $41,934,000 after acquiring an additional 135,350 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 35.7% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $98,306,000 after purchasing an additional 107,171 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter valued at $25,188,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $329.71 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $176.93 and a 1-year high of $337.99. The firm has a market cap of $10.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $291.63 and a 200-day moving average of $263.88.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.74 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.18%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 4.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

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.