Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Short Interest Update

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 753,500 shares, a decline of 13.4% from the October 31st total of 870,300 shares. Approximately 2.5% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 259,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 23,789 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $6,394,000 after buying an additional 1,108 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the first quarter valued at approximately $1,706,000. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 291.2% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 6,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,752,000 after purchasing an additional 4,854 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the first quarter worth approximately $376,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Acuity Brands by 14.6% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 635 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $153,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 1.4 %

NYSE:AYI traded up $4.45 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $326.52. 156,011 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 255,085. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $181.18 and a 1 year high of $337.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.39. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $308.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $269.78. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $3.74 EPS. Analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.18%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 4.46%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target 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. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.