Forte Capital LLC ADV Sells 61 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Forte Capital LLC ADV lowered its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,929 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 61 shares during the quarter. Forte Capital LLC ADV’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,010,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,365,821 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $573,233,000 after buying an additional 17,459 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 17.2% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,103,793 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $187,987,000 after buying an additional 161,818 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 41.5% in the third quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 844,969 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $143,907,000 after acquiring an additional 247,774 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 820,077 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $139,667,000 after acquiring an additional 89,192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners grew its position in Acuity Brands by 35.8% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 709,647 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $120,585,000 after acquiring an additional 187,128 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have issued reports on AYI shares. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $289.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $248.91 per share, for a total transaction of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,782. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Acuity Brands news, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 200 shares in the company, valued at $49,782. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 1.6 %

Acuity Brands stock traded up $3.94 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $254.41. 203,664 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 232,739. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.29, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 2.59. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $149.30 and a fifty-two week high of $272.74. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $257.79 and its 200-day moving average is $221.24.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.23. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 9.81%. The company had revenue of $905.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $897.01 million. On average, analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th were given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.24%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is 5.02%.

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.