First City Capital Management Inc. Sells 100 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

First City Capital Management Inc. lowered its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 5.8% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,633 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 100 shares during the period. First City Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $430,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 1,526 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $402,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Matrix Trust Co boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 69.4% during the 1st quarter. Matrix Trust Co now owns 520 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $137,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. Merit Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 82.7% during the 1st quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 1,451 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $382,000 after acquiring an additional 657 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 29,415.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 227,271 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $59,852,000 after acquiring an additional 226,501 shares during the period. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 192.8% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,615 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,640,000 after buying an additional 3,697 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Wall Street Zen raised Acuity Brands from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 1.7%

Acuity Brands stock opened at $269.67 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.81 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $250.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $287.25.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.16%.

About Acuity Brands

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.