Tidal Investments LLC Trims Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

by · The Markets Daily

Tidal Investments LLC lessened its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI – Free Report) by 11.7% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,325 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 442 shares during the quarter. Tidal Investments LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $916,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 366.2% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $83,430,000 after acquiring an additional 271,485 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 187.8% during the second 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 during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 353.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $41,934,000 after purchasing an additional 135,350 shares during the period. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $31,026,000. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 35.7% in the 2nd 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 during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on AYI. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 16th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $324.00.

Read Our Latest Stock Report on Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.0 %

AYI opened at $302.70 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $199.47 and a one year high of $337.99. The company has a market cap of $9.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.52, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The business’s fifty day moving average is $315.56 and its two-hundred day moving average is $275.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI – Get Free Report) last issued 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 the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.74 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 EPS 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 paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Company Profile

(Free Report)

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.

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