Truist Financial Corp Boosts Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Truist Financial Corp raised its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 81.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 8,234 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 3,700 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,988,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

AYI stock opened at $307.87 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.16. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.84 and a 1 year high of $310.96. The company has a market cap of $9.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.41. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $257.58 and its 200-day moving average price is $255.45.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.74 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 4.88%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. 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, the company has an average rating of “Hold” 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.