Farther Finance Advisors LLC Sells 43 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Farther Finance Advisors LLC decreased its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 27.6% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 113 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 43 shares during the quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $33,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $275.18 on Tuesday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $306.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $303.82. The firm has a market cap of $8.52 billion, a PE ratio of 20.26, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.72 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.01%.

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.