State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Cuts Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D trimmed its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 5.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,298 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 704 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $3,111,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.5% during 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 increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $152,085,000 after purchasing an additional 20,832 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $106,201,000 after purchasing an additional 63,159 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 35.7% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $98,306,000 after buying an additional 107,171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its position in Acuity Brands by 366.2% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $83,430,000 after buying an additional 271,485 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target 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, StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Three equities research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of AYI opened at $332.26 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $288.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $262.85. 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 twelve month low of $174.67 and a twelve month high of $334.66. The stock has a market cap of $10.25 billion, a PE ratio of 24.72, a P/E/G ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The business 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 revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.74 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.18%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

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.