Empowered Funds LLC Cuts Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Empowered Funds LLC reduced its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 22.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,062 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 607 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $602,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% during the 4th quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 6,500 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,899,000 after buying an additional 909 shares during the period. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 46.2% during the 4th quarter. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC now owns 2,110 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $616,000 after purchasing an additional 667 shares in the last quarter. Hedeker Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Hedeker Wealth LLC now owns 19,395 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $5,666,000 after buying an additional 383 shares in the last quarter. Caitlin John LLC boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Caitlin John LLC now owns 5,616 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,641,000 after buying an additional 161 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $329.96 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $317.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $295.77. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The company has a market cap of $10.22 billion, a PE ratio of 24.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.01%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued 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 an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

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.