Blue Trust Inc. Buys 375 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 33.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,489 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 375 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $360,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 4.1% during 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 in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Acuity Brands by 6.2% during the fourth 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. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $68,686,000. Seizert Capital Partners LLC increased its position in Acuity Brands by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. Seizert Capital Partners LLC now owns 295,917 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $60,613,000 after acquiring an additional 35,456 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors increased its position in Acuity Brands by 9.9% during the first quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 224,326 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $60,283,000 after acquiring an additional 20,115 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut 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 report on Friday, June 28th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:AYI traded up $0.72 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $236.91. 251,816 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 258,673. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $156.49 and a 1 year high of $272.74. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $243.75 and a 200-day moving average price of $250.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.15.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The business had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.52 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.50 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 18th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.88%.

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.