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

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 856,500 shares, a growth of 8.3% from the January 15th total of 790,800 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 314,900 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.7 days. Currently, 2.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Finally, William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE AYI traded up $0.87 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $329.96. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 147,186 shares, compared to its average volume of 314,777. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $317.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $295.77. The stock has a market cap of $10.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 5.01%.

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.