Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Has $899,000 Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lessened its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.5% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,345 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 50 shares during the quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $899,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AYI. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $68,686,000. Vision One Management Partners LP acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $21,901,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,149,459 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $235,444,000 after purchasing an additional 45,666 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 625,077 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $128,035,000 after acquiring an additional 36,488 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Seizert Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 13.6% in the fourth quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 295,917 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $60,613,000 after purchasing an additional 35,456 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Acuity Brands Stock Up 1.3 %

AYI stock traded up $3.26 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $248.33. The company had a trading volume of 297,058 shares, compared to its average volume of 255,105. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.15. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $250.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $250.63. The company has a market capitalization of $7.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.19, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $156.49 and a 52 week 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 (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The company had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.50 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.24%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

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.