Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Franklin Resources Inc.

Franklin Resources Inc. cut its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 94,752 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 799 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned approximately 0.31% of Acuity Brands worth $27,680,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $233.15 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $294.09 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $304.02. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.38 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.16%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on AYI shares. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley raised 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 report on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $324.60.

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.