Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Parallel Advisors LLC

Parallel Advisors LLC trimmed its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 3,452 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 42 shares during the quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,008,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 1.0 %

Acuity Brands stock opened at $266.82 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.26 billion, a PE ratio of 19.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $308.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $302.96. 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 posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.72 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.01%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

About Acuity Brands

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.