995 Shares in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Purchased by ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 995 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $204,000.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Acuity Brands by 77.3% in the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter valued at about $41,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 85.7% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 221 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after buying an additional 102 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 20.0% during the third quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 402 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $68,000 after buying an additional 67 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on 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 lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $289.25.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction 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 directly 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 is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of AYI traded up $0.20 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $247.06. The company had a trading volume of 253,770 shares, compared to its average volume of 269,717. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $149.30 and a 1 year high of $272.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 2.59. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $255.81 and its 200-day simple moving average is $216.69.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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.