Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Lowers Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board reduced its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 46.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 11,404 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 10,064 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board's holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $3,141,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Commerce Bank purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $231,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth $62,000. Lingohr Asset Management GmbH boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 65.6% during the third quarter. Lingohr Asset Management GmbH now owns 4,815 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,325,000 after buying an additional 1,907 shares during the period. Caprock Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at about $251,000. Finally, Quest Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.9% in the third quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 9,473 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $2,609,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 1.50% of the company's stock.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE AYI traded down $1.33 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $315.62. 241,406 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 256,082. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $297.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $266.04. 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 $9.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.58, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $176.93 and a 12-month high of $337.99.

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

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.46%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average 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.