Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Sells 23,545 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC trimmed its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 80.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 5,625 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 23,545 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,549,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 19.5% during the first quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 3,783 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,017,000 after buying an additional 617 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 21.2% during the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 6,028 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,620,000 after purchasing an additional 1,055 shares in the last quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 15.0% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 42,027 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $11,281,000 after purchasing an additional 5,474 shares in the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 33.9% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 38,071 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $10,231,000 after purchasing an additional 9,630 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 3.5% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $386,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective 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. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer upped 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 raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was 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 directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.4 %

AYI opened at $330.70 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $10.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.98, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $176.93 and a 12 month high of $337.99. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $289.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $263.41. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.74 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a 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%.

Acuity Brands Company 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.