Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Raises Stock Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 16.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 467 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 65 shares during the quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $96,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AYI. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% in 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 in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 17.2% in the 3rd 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. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 41.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 844,969 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $143,907,000 after buying an additional 247,774 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position 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 buying an additional 89,192 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 35.8% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 709,647 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $120,585,000 after purchasing an additional 187,128 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of AYI stock opened at $251.73 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $7.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.05, a PEG ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.49. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $149.30 and a 1-year high of $272.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 1.96. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $256.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $218.79.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.02%.

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.