Arcus Capital Partners LLC Decreases Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Arcus Capital Partners LLC decreased its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 30.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 2,644 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 1,132 shares during the period. Arcus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $711,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at about $3,849,000. Hancock Whitney Corp boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 42.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,784,000 after acquiring an additional 1,917 shares during the period. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $484,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $813,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $462,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised 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. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $325.13 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.94, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $217.64 and a one year high of $345.30. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $316.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $293.73.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.72 EPS. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 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. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 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.