Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.
Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.9 %
Shares of AYI traded up $7.62 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $272.12. The stock had a trading volume of 309,261 shares, compared to its average volume of 274,563. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 1.85. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $149.30 and a 52-week high of $272.74. The business's fifty day moving average is $251.61 and its 200 day moving average is $209.67. The firm has a market cap of $8.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.75, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.49.
Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 9th. The electronics maker reported $3.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.49. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 9.81% and a return on equity of 21.22%. The firm had revenue of $934.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $935.14 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.04 earnings per share. Acuity Brands's quarterly revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 13.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Acuity Brands Announces Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.02%.
Wall Street Analyst Weigh In
A number of research firms recently commented on AYI. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $265.40.
View Our Latest Stock Analysis on AYI
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 77.3% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 58 shares during the period. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% during the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the period. Finally, Dark Forest Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the first quarter worth about $41,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.
About Acuity Brands
(
Get Free Report)
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.
Further Reading
Before you consider Acuity Brands, you'll want to hear this.
MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Acuity Brands wasn't on the list.
While Acuity Brands currently has a "Moderate Buy" rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.
View The Five Stocks Here
Looking to avoid the hassle of mudslinging, volatility, and uncertainty? You'd need to be out of the market, which isn’t viable. So where should investors put their money? Find out with this report.
Get This Free Report
