Empowered Funds LLC Grows Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Empowered Funds LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 26.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,669 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 564 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $735,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $6,965,000 after acquiring an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,706,000. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,188,000. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 15.0% during the third quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 21,285 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $5,862,000 after buying an additional 2,773 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth $484,000. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Acuity Brands Trading Up 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $326.24 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $176.93 and a 12-month high of $337.99. The company has a market cap of $10.07 billion, a PE ratio of 24.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $301.93 and a 200 day moving average of $267.27. 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 released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company 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 company earned $3.74 EPS. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.46%.

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.