SG Americas Securities LLC Lowers Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

SG Americas Securities LLC decreased its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 25.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,831 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 631 shares during the quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $535,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at $62,000. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on AYI. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective 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. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $332.38 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $10.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.48, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $316.93 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $289.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.20%. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

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.