Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Boston Trust Walden Corp

Boston Trust Walden Corp lowered its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 220,497 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 3,724 shares during the period. Boston Trust Walden Corp owned approximately 0.72% of Acuity Brands worth $60,723,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the first quarter valued at $27,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in Acuity Brands by 4,214.3% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 302 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 295 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Wells Fargo & Company increased 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. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price 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. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 1.4 %

Acuity Brands stock traded up $4.12 during trading on Friday, hitting $303.09. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 209,369 shares, compared to its average volume of 254,825. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $273.89 and its 200 day moving average is $258.24. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $156.84 and a 1-year high of $312.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.65, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.41. 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) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.74 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.48 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.20%. 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.