Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. Has $3.41 Million Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,379 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 78 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $3,409,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 15.0% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 42,027 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $11,281,000 after buying an additional 5,474 shares during the last quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 33.9% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 38,071 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $10,231,000 after acquiring an additional 9,630 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.5% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $386,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 148.4% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 4,397 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,166,000 after purchasing an additional 2,627 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in Acuity Brands by 11.4% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 74,143 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $19,922,000 after purchasing an additional 7,601 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have weighed in on AYI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price 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. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. 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 report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.00.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In related news, 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of AYI opened at $325.87 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $10.06 billion, a PE ratio of 24.25, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.40. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $293.41 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $264.34. 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, Inc. has a 12 month low of $176.93 and a 12 month high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.74 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.46%.

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.