Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company trimmed its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 25,956 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 477 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned approximately 0.08% of Acuity Brands worth $6,267,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% in the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its position in Acuity Brands by 4,214.3% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 302 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $73,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 14.7% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $128,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on AYI shares. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 3.0 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $306.83 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $252.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $254.33. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.84 and a 52 week high of $307.24. The stock has a market cap of $9.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.95, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.77.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.74 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.