Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Stock Holdings Lessened by Two Sigma Advisers LP

Two Sigma Advisers LP cut its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 61.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 31,700 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 50,000 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $9,261,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AYI. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,000. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 50.5% during the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 161 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $47,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Acuity Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price target on shares of Acuity Brands in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $260.22 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.81 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The company has a market cap of $8.04 billion, a PE ratio of 19.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $251.91 and a 200-day simple moving average of $291.69. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.38 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.16%.

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.