Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Short Interest Down 12.5% in November

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) saw a significant drop in short interest during the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 659,100 shares, a drop of 12.5% from the November 15th total of 753,500 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 270,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.4 days. Approximately 2.1% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm's 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $3,849,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 24.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 95,551 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $26,314,000 after purchasing an additional 18,919 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $83,000. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $31,026,000. Finally, Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the subject of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Oppenheimer boosted 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. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI traded down $5.04 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $317.74. The company had a trading volume of 227,413 shares, compared to its average volume of 256,264. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.16. The company has a market capitalization of $9.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.64, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. Acuity Brands has a twelve month low of $196.38 and a twelve month high of $337.99. The company's 50-day moving average is $315.34 and its 200-day moving average is $273.59.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.74 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is currently 4.46%.

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.