1,000 Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Bought by InterOcean Capital Group LLC

InterOcean Capital Group LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 1,000 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $269,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Blair William & Co. IL increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.5% during the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $386,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 3.1% in the fourth quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,847 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $378,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 10,903 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,233,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 19.1% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 349 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $94,000 after buying an additional 56 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 77.3% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on AYI shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 4th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.6 %

AYI stock opened at $244.75 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $251.00 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $250.17. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.49 and a twelve month high of $272.74.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.52 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.50 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 18th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.88%.

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.