Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Hillsdale Investment Management Inc.

Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 41.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,600 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 1,150 shares during the quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $467,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,865,000 after purchasing an additional 12,479 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $172,654,000 after buying an additional 34,032 shares during the period. Captrust Financial Advisors lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 9.3% in the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 269,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $74,092,000 after buying an additional 22,781 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 188,670 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $55,116,000 after acquiring an additional 2,795 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 152,187 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $44,458,000 after acquiring an additional 3,589 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 4.2 %

AYI opened at $275.18 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $306.52 and its 200-day moving average is $303.82. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $217.64 and a one year high of $345.30. The company has a market capitalization of $8.52 billion, a PE ratio of 20.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98.

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

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. This is a positive change 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.01%.

Acuity Brands 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.