First City Capital Management Inc. Has $483,000 Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

First City Capital Management Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 37.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,753 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 1,030 shares during the quarter. First City Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $483,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Caprock Group LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $251,000. Quest Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.9% during the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 9,473 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,609,000 after buying an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 281,308 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $77,469,000 after acquiring an additional 5,435 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 26.8% during the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,669 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $735,000 after acquiring an additional 564 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sycomore Asset Management grew its position in Acuity Brands by 9.0% during the 3rd quarter. Sycomore Asset Management now owns 7,669 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,069,000 after acquiring an additional 633 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $323.47 on Tuesday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $176.93 and a 52 week high of $337.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $296.58 and its 200-day moving average is $265.60. The firm has a market cap of $9.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.07, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.40.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

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.