Intrepid Capital Management Inc. Trims Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Intrepid Capital Management Inc. cut its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 83.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,668 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 8,420 shares during the quarter. Intrepid Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $487,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $110,236,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 241.8% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 216,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $63,102,000 after purchasing an additional 152,807 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,026,000. Prudential Financial Inc. raised its position in Acuity Brands by 135.8% in the 4th quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 180,272 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $52,663,000 after purchasing an additional 103,818 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $326,452,000 after buying an additional 103,162 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $263.89 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a PE ratio of 19.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $299.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $304.54.

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

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.26%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on AYI shares. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $340.00 to $310.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $330.60.

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.