Captrust Financial Advisors Sells 104,316 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Captrust Financial Advisors lowered its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 38.8% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 164,727 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 104,316 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors owned about 0.53% of Acuity Brands worth $48,122,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $266,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,210,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 13.1% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 398 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $116,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.2% in the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 951 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $278,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bailard Inc. grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.5% in the fourth quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 1,896 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $554,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have commented on AYI. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. 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 research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on Acuity Brands in a report on Friday, April 4th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $252.80 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.62, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. 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 stock's 50 day moving average is $254.84 and its 200-day moving average is $295.32.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for 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 company's quarterly revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.38 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. 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 presently 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.

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