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

New York State Common Retirement Fund reduced its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 137,581 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 3,960 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.45% of Acuity Brands worth $37,888,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AYI. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 2.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 835,521 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $201,728,000 after acquiring an additional 20,537 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 3.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $152,085,000 after acquiring an additional 20,832 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 16.7% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $106,201,000 after acquiring an additional 63,159 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 35.7% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $98,306,000 after acquiring an additional 107,171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 366.2% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $83,430,000 after acquiring an additional 271,485 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded up $5.70 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $306.39. 189,734 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 245,863. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1 year low of $163.12 and a 1 year high of $312.20. The stock's fifty day moving average is $279.92 and its 200 day moving average is $259.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. The firm has a market cap of $9.46 billion, a PE ratio of 22.80, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The company's revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.74 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.46%.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AYI. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $324.00.

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.