Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Short Interest Down 12.5% in November

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in the month of November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 659,100 shares, a drop of 12.5% from the November 15th total of 753,500 shares. Approximately 2.1% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 270,600 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 1.6 %

NYSE AYI traded down $5.03 on Tuesday, hitting $312.85. 224,767 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 255,866. Acuity Brands has a 52-week low of $199.47 and a 52-week high of $337.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $315.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $274.16.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.74 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AYI. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 517.6% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the second quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth approximately $62,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on AYI. Oppenheimer increased their price target 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 lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $324.00.

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.