Sycomore Asset Management Trims Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Sycomore Asset Management trimmed its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 11.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,546 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 1,252 shares during the quarter. Sycomore Asset Management’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,964,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. GAMMA Investing LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $108,000. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 11.9% during the 4th quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,097 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $839,000 after buying an additional 435 shares in the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 16.2% during the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 467 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $96,000 after buying an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 70.6% during the 4th quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 5,800 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,188,000 after buying an additional 2,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 508.9% during the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 341 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $70,000 after buying an additional 285 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was 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 directly owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at $5,320,062.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AYI. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised 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. The Goldman Sachs Group raised 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised 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. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $289.25.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.8 %

AYI traded down $2.04 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $253.15. The company had a trading volume of 198,720 shares, compared to its average volume of 266,372. The stock has a market cap of $7.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.17, a PEG ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.49. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $256.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $218.56. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $149.30 and a 52 week high of $272.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

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