Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Axa S.A.

Axa S.A. cut its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 18.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 26,817 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 5,900 shares during the period. Axa S.A. owned 0.09% of Acuity Brands worth $7,834,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $83,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 24.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 95,551 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $26,314,000 after buying an additional 18,919 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 770 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $225,000 after buying an additional 59 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 49,449 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $14,602,000 after acquiring an additional 2,677 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Trust Co raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 83.1% in the 4th quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 5,119 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,495,000 after acquiring an additional 2,323 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.0 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $252.80 on Tuesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $254.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $295.32. 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, Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.81 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The firm has a market cap of $7.81 billion, a PE ratio of 18.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.38 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.27%. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.16%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on Acuity Brands in a research note on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on 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. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $317.60.

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.

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