Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC Has $528,000 Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC cut its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 14.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,918 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 322 shares during the quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $528,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.5% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 835,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $201,728,000 after acquiring an additional 20,537 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $152,085,000 after purchasing an additional 20,832 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $106,201,000 after purchasing an additional 63,159 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 35.7% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $98,306,000 after purchasing an additional 107,171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 366.2% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $83,430,000 after purchasing an additional 271,485 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $330.43 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $286.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $262.16. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $168.32 and a one year high of $331.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.59, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.74 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.18%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on AYI shares. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Company 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.