GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. Acquires New Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 767 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Hedeker Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.1% in the third quarter. Hedeker Wealth LLC now owns 19,012 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $5,236,000 after buying an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,717,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 7.2% during the 3rd quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 3,552 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $978,000 after purchasing an additional 240 shares during the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $242,000. Finally, First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $208,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $303.54 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $276.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $258.74. The stock has a market cap of $9.34 billion, a PE ratio of 24.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $157.34 and a 1-year high of $312.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.16.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.74 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.48 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 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.