Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Sold by Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund

Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund reduced its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 1.2% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,230 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 78 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $1,820,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ballentine Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,210,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $86,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.3% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,717,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 398 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $116,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.7 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $296.94 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $217.64 and a one year high of $345.30. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $316.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $300.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

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.