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

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D reduced its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 12.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 16,189 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 2,266 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D owned approximately 0.05% of Acuity Brands worth $3,316,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Oak Thistle LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at $297,000. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 7.2% during the third quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,662 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $624,000 after purchasing an additional 247 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 5.0% during the third quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 2,709 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $461,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 12.3% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 32,859 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $5,596,000 after purchasing an additional 3,590 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bailard Inc. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at $430,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of AYI stock opened at $252.08 on Friday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $149.30 and a 12-month high of $272.74. The company has a current ratio of 2.59, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $257.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $219.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.49.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.85 by $0.23. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 9.81%. The firm had revenue of $905.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $897.01 million. Equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.24%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.02%.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Acuity Brands news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Maya Leibman acquired 200 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $248.91 per share, for a total transaction of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,782. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on AYI. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $289.25.

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.