Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Stake Raised by State Street Corp

State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 1.3% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 969,043 shares of the electronics maker's stock after buying an additional 12,479 shares during the period. State Street Corp owned 3.14% of Acuity Brands worth $266,865,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $6,965,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the period. Hancock Whitney Corp increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 42.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,784,000 after purchasing an additional 1,917 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $484,000. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 15.0% during the third quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 21,285 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $5,862,000 after purchasing an additional 2,773 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $813,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective 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, October 31st. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI traded up $4.27 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $323.50. 233,457 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 256,640. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $313.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $271.96. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $188.63 and a 52 week high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The firm's revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.74 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

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

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.