Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Dimensional Fund Advisors LP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP cut its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 3.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 605,504 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 23,390 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned about 1.96% of Acuity Brands worth $176,893,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 50.5% during the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 161 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $47,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.8 %

AYI traded down $1.93 on Tuesday, hitting $240.49. 48,203 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 299,796. 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 company has a market cap of $7.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.70, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $261.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $297.43. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $216.81 and a twelve month high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.38 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.28%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.