Short Interest in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Decreases By 9.0%

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 1,210,000 shares, a decrease of 9.0% from the September 15th total of 1,330,000 shares. Currently, 3.9% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 235,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 5.1 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have commented on AYI. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped 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 report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer increased 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI traded up $1.82 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $306.82. The company had a trading volume of 234,620 shares, compared to its average volume of 256,073. The company has a market capitalization of $9.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $264.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $256.44. Acuity Brands has a 1-year low of $156.84 and a 1-year high of $312.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.74 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.48 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.88%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Creative Planning grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,050,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Blair William & Co. IL increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 3.5% in the first 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 during the period. Covestor Ltd raised its position in Acuity Brands by 14.7% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,541 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $613,000 after buying an additional 69 shares during the period. Finally, Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 1,465 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $354,000 after buying an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.