Amalgamated Bank Raises Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Amalgamated Bank raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 21,191 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 218 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank owned about 0.07% of Acuity Brands worth $4,341,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 2,709 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $461,000 after buying an additional 128 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.3% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 32,859 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $5,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,590 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth about $305,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 14.0% during the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 33,707 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $5,741,000 after purchasing an additional 4,140 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its position in Acuity Brands by 12.5% during the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,215 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $371,000 after purchasing an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $262.27 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $258.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $224.01. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $149.30 and a fifty-two week high of $272.74. The company has a market capitalization of $8.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 2.59.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.23. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 9.81%. The company had revenue of $905.90 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $897.01 million. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Acuity Brands news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $248.91 per share, for a total transaction of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,782. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on AYI shares. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $289.25.

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.