Benjamin Edwards Inc. Has $318,000 Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. decreased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,316 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 62 shares during the quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $318,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Blair William & Co. IL grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $386,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its position in Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 10,903 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,233,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel grew its position in Acuity Brands by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 5,999 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,148,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd grew its position in Acuity Brands by 14.7% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $128,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Acuity Brands by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,541 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $613,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday, June 28th. Robert W. Baird reduced 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. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $272.23 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $247.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $252.59. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.84 and a 1-year high of $273.36. The stock has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a PE ratio of 22.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The business had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.50 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 18th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. 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 payout ratio is 4.88%.

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.