Pzena Investment Management LLC Sells 20,107 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Pzena Investment Management LLC reduced its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 93.2% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,460 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 20,107 shares during the quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $353,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Jackson Creek Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the second quarter worth $238,000. Versor Investments LP bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the second quarter worth $1,473,000. Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 32.1% in the second quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 4,218 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,018,000 after purchasing an additional 1,026 shares during the period. Picton Mahoney Asset Management bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the second quarter worth $154,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 17.4% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 13,937 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,365,000 after purchasing an additional 2,068 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $247.00 on Thursday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.49 and a twelve month high of $272.74. The firm has a market cap of $7.60 billion, a PE ratio of 20.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.77. The business has a fifty day moving average of $243.53 and a 200-day moving average of $251.78.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The company had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.52 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.50 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 18th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.24%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.88%.

About Acuity Brands

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.