Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 10.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 123,641 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 13,940 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned about 0.40% of Acuity Brands worth $36,119,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $50,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 40.9% during the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $52,000 after purchasing an additional 52 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AYI. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 1.8 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $320.77 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $317.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $296.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.62, a PEG ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

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.