Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Short Interest Update

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 753,500 shares, a decline of 13.4% from the October 31st total of 870,300 shares. Currently, 2.5% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 259,800 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.9 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position 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 buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the second quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $62,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.2 %

AYI stock opened at $320.69 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $307.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $269.35. The stock has a market cap of $9.90 billion, a PE ratio of 23.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands has a fifty-two week low of $176.93 and a fifty-two week high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.74 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target 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. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands 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.