Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Sells 23,545 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC decreased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 80.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 5,625 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 23,545 shares during the period. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC's holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,549,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $3,717,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,050,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $386,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd raised its position in Acuity Brands by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 427 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $118,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its position in Acuity Brands by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,541 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $613,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock 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 note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $324.00.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE AYI traded down $0.99 during trading on Thursday, reaching $329.71. 266,367 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 255,979. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $291.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $263.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.61, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.16. 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 posted 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. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.74 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend 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 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.