Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Holdings Decreased by Private Client Services LLC

Private Client Services LLC lowered its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 60.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,870 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 2,843 shares during the period. Private Client Services LLC's holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $492,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $906,930,000 after purchasing an additional 16,407 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,120,979 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $327,471,000 after buying an additional 8,705 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $326,452,000 after buying an additional 103,162 shares in the last quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 158.9% during the fourth quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $317,977,000 after buying an additional 668,048 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 644,109 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $188,211,000 after buying an additional 17,299 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the subject of a number of research reports. 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. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on shares of 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. According to 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 AYI traded down $2.48 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $259.26. 408,084 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 302,410. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.81 and a 1-year high of $345.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.01 billion, a PE ratio of 19.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The business's 50 day moving average price is $251.05 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $289.09.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.16%.

About Acuity Brands

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.