Barclays PLC Sells 42,144 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Barclays PLC cut its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 62.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 25,389 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 42,144 shares during the quarter. Barclays PLC owned about 0.08% of Acuity Brands worth $7,417,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sagespring Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $340,000. Townsquare Capital LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $207,000. Sterling Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 9.5% in the fourth quarter. Sterling Capital Management LLC now owns 5,335 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,559,000 after acquiring an additional 462 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 28,678 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $8,378,000 after acquiring an additional 395 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Fund Management S.A. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $6,095,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird decreased their price objective 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. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE AYI traded up $2.06 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $243.76. 422,081 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 301,950. The business's fifty day moving average price is $258.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $296.67. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.81 and a 52 week high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.38 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.28%. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is currently 5.16%.

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.