Bank of America Corp DE Acquires 14,358 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Posted by on Jun 8th, 2023

Bank of America Corp DE raised its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI – Get Rating) by 5.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 263,063 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 14,358 shares during the quarter. Bank of America Corp DE owned about 0.82% of Acuity Brands worth $43,566,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,100 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $182,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 7,225 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,197,000 after acquiring an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Creative Planning now owns 4,307 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $713,000 after acquiring an additional 66 shares during the last quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.7% in the fourth quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 9,473 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,569,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. Finally, Ellevest Inc. raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 35.5% in the fourth quarter. Ellevest Inc. now owns 267 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 70 shares during the period. 93.80% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, Director Laura O’shaughnessy purchased 632 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 11th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $158.05 per share, for a total transaction of $99,887.60. Following the purchase, the director now owns 2,111 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $333,643.55. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.10% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on AYI shares. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Acuity Brands in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $201.00 to $173.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 5th. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $180.00 to $170.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 5th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of Acuity Brands in a report on Tuesday, April 11th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $193.00 to $180.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $191.88.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.8 %

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $165.09 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.61, a current ratio of 2.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $142.71 and a 12 month high of $202.90. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $159.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $174.30. The firm has a market cap of $5.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.47, a PEG ratio of 1.24 and a beta of 1.57.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 4th. The electronics maker reported $2.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.28 by $0.51. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 9.22% and a return on equity of 22.20%. The firm had revenue of $943.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $959.99 million. As a group, research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 12.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 17th were paid a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 14th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.31%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 4.56%.

Acuity Brands Profile

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Acuity Brands, Inc provides lighting and building management solutions in North America and internationally. The company operates through 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 Lithonia Lighting, Holophane, Peerless, Gotham, Mark Architectural Lighting, Winona Lighting, Juno, Indy, Aculux, Healthcare Lighting, Hydrel, American Electric Lighting, Sunoptics, eldoLED, nLight, Sensor Switch, IOTA, A-Light, Cyclone, Eureka, Lumniaire LED, Luminis, Dark to Light, RELOC Wiring Solutions, and OPTOTRONIC brands.

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Institutional Ownership by Quarter for Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI)

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