Amalgamated Bank Trims Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Amalgamated Bank cut its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 15.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 17,927 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 3,173 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank owned approximately 0.06% of Acuity Brands worth $4,328,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the first quarter worth about $27,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the second quarter worth about $41,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. raised 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 purchasing an additional 170 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 900.0% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the period. Finally, Evermay Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $61,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of AYI stock opened at $272.23 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $247.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $252.59. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.84 and a fifty-two week high of $273.36.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.50 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 18th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.88%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $279.00.

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.