Intech Investment Management LLC Has $969,000 Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Intech Investment Management LLC lowered its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 41.4% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,518 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 2,488 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $969,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 8.0% in the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $6,965,000 after buying an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Atria Investments Inc bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter worth about $1,706,000. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter valued at about $25,188,000. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 15.0% during the 3rd quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 21,285 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $5,862,000 after purchasing an additional 2,773 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $484,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related 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 transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $320.16 on Thursday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $176.93 and a 12 month high of $337.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.88 billion, a PE ratio of 23.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.40. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $305.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $268.53. 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 posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.74 EPS. Analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were given 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 dividend yield of 0.19%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.46%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

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.