New York Life Investment Management LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

New York Life Investment Management LLC lowered its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 7.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,405 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 283 shares during the quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $995,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at about $3,849,000. Hancock Whitney Corp increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 42.0% during the third quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,784,000 after acquiring an additional 1,917 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at about $484,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at about $813,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at about $462,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on AYI shares. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $284.51 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.95, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $316.45 and its 200-day simple moving average is $301.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.72 EPS. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.24%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.01%.

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.