Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by LSV Asset Management

LSV Asset Management lessened its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 18.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 359,371 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 83,509 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management owned 1.16% of Acuity Brands worth $104,983,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 50.5% in the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 161 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AYI. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE AYI traded down $2.09 on Wednesday, hitting $233.60. The company had a trading volume of 91,246 shares, compared to its average volume of 294,176. The company's fifty day moving average price is $277.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $301.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The company has a market capitalization of $7.22 billion, a PE ratio of 17.20, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.81 and a 12-month high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. Acuity Brands's revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.38 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.29%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.16%.

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.