Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 1,210,000 shares, a decrease of 9.0% from the September 15th total of 1,330,000 shares. Currently, 3.9% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 235,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.1 days.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 23.4% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 99,573 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $20,396,000 after acquiring an additional 18,881 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position 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 buying an additional 45,666 shares in the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 14.4% during the fourth quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 13,438 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,755,000 after buying an additional 1,694 shares during the last quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 88.4% during the fourth quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda now owns 1,396 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $286,000 after buying an additional 655 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the first quarter valued at approximately $7,061,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.1 %

AYI stock traded up $0.45 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $305.45. The company had a trading volume of 59,632 shares, compared to its average volume of 255,162. The company has a market capitalization of $9.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.80, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $156.84 and a 1 year high of $312.20. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a 50 day moving average of $264.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $256.44.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.74 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.20%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective 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, Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $324.00.

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.