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

GW Henssler & Associates Ltd. bought a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 767 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $211,000.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Hedeker Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Hedeker Wealth LLC now owns 19,012 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $5,236,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.3% in the third 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 during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 7.2% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at $242,000. Finally, First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth $208,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares in the company, 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 SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on AYI shares. 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 research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased 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. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of AYI stock opened at $303.54 on Wednesday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $157.34 and a twelve month high of $312.20. The stock has a market cap of $9.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.68, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $276.49 and a 200 day moving average of $258.74. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

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 analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.74 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.48 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

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