Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Arcus Capital Partners LLC

Arcus Capital Partners LLC trimmed its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 30.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 2,644 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 1,132 shares during the quarter. Arcus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $711,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Creative Planning boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,050,000 after buying an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.6% in the third quarter. Twelve Points Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,778 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,040,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares in the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at about $35,000. Net Worth Advisory Group acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $297,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 14.3% during the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,702 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $469,000 after purchasing an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $325.13 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $316.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $293.73. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The company has a market capitalization of $10.07 billion, a PE ratio of 23.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.72 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AYI. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

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.