New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 13,940 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

New York State Common Retirement Fund decreased its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 10.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 123,641 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 13,940 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.40% of Acuity Brands worth $36,119,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 398 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $116,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 60.2% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 7,807 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $2,281,000 after purchasing an additional 2,934 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 951 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $278,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 4.5% during the 4th quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 13,652 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $3,988,000 after buying an additional 586 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 467.1% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 448 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $131,000 after buying an additional 369 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.0 %

NYSE AYI traded down $3.08 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $306.17. The company's stock had a trading volume of 207,077 shares, compared to its average volume of 302,425. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $316.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $299.03. The company has a market capitalization of $9.48 billion, a PE ratio of 22.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. 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. Finally, William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands 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.