New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 3,960 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 137,581 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 3,960 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $37,888,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in Acuity Brands by 366.2% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $83,430,000 after purchasing an additional 271,485 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 187.8% during the second quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 330,331 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $79,755,000 after buying an additional 215,547 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 353.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $41,934,000 after acquiring an additional 135,350 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 35.7% in the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,188,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,573,590. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 1.9 %

AYI stock opened at $306.39 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $9.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.41. 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 business’s 50-day moving average is $279.92 and its two-hundred day moving average is $259.76. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $163.12 and a fifty-two week high of $312.20.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.46%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.00.

About Acuity Brands

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.