Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Sells 1,284 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. lessened its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 10.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 11,095 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 1,284 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $3,241,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 40.9% in the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $296.94 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30. 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 stock has a market cap of $9.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.87, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $316.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $300.61.

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

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.23%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.01%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Acuity Brands Company 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.