GSA Capital Partners LLP Sells 3,711 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

GSA Capital Partners LLP reduced its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 51.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 3,565 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 3,711 shares during the quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP's holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $982,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 366.2% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $83,430,000 after buying an additional 271,485 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. increased its position in Acuity Brands by 187.8% during the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 330,331 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $79,755,000 after purchasing an additional 215,547 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 353.1% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $41,934,000 after buying an additional 135,350 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 35.7% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $98,306,000 after buying an additional 107,171 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the first quarter worth approximately $25,188,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI stock traded down $3.76 during trading on Friday, hitting $325.87. The company had a trading volume of 251,252 shares, compared to its average volume of 255,958. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The business has a 50 day moving average of $295.08 and a 200 day moving average of $264.84. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $176.93 and a fifty-two week high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.74 earnings per share. Acuity Brands's revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were 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 directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted 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. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has an average 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.