Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Short Interest Update

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 753,500 shares, a decrease of 13.4% from the October 31st total of 870,300 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 259,800 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.9 days. Approximately 2.5% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $35,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the second quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at about $62,000. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded up $1.87 on Tuesday, hitting $323.94. 38,871 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 254,572. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $308.42 and a 200-day simple moving average of $269.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $181.18 and a 1 year high of $337.99. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.00 billion, a PE ratio of 23.96, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.39.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.74 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.19%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.46%.

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.