Barry R. Goldman Sells 5,120 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Stock

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’s 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.4 %

AYI stock opened at $300.69 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $158.80 and a 12-month high of $312.20. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a market cap of $9.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.37, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a 50 day moving average of $278.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $259.33.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The business 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%. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.74 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.46%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AYI. State of Michigan Retirement System raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.4% in the 1st quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 7,494 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,014,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its position in Acuity Brands by 4.3% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 6,186 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,662,000 after purchasing an additional 256 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in Acuity Brands by 36.5% in the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 11,869 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,190,000 after purchasing an additional 3,175 shares during the last quarter. Smith Group Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter worth $661,000. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its position in Acuity Brands by 19.5% in the 1st quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 3,783 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,017,000 after purchasing an additional 617 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

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.