Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Bought by Crossmark Global Holdings Inc.

Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 9.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,275 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,636 shares during the period. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. owned about 0.06% of Acuity Brands worth $5,033,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of AYI. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,717,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.2% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,050,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $386,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd boosted its position in shares of 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 period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $333.69 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.40. 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, Inc. has a 1 year low of $174.67 and a 1 year high of $334.66. The company’s fifty day moving average is $286.65 and its two-hundred day moving average is $262.27.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.74 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.18%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 4.46%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.00.

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.