Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC Takes $253,000 Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 1,049 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $253,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 508.9% during the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 341 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $70,000 after acquiring an additional 285 shares during the period. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 70.6% in the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 5,800 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,188,000 after acquiring an additional 2,400 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its position in Acuity Brands by 16.2% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 467 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $96,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the period. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,097 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $839,000 after acquiring an additional 435 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth about $108,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE AYI traded down $0.33 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $242.79. 9,301 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 255,099. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.49 and a 1-year high of $272.74. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $242.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $251.01. The company has a market cap of $7.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.77, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The business’s revenue was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.50 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 18th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AYI. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Three 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $279.00.

Acuity Brands 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.