Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Sells 270 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky cut its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 10,222 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 270 shares during the period. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $2,815,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at $35,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the second quarter valued at $41,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at $62,000. Finally, Quarry LP grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 229.7% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 244 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised 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 boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of 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 issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $317.74 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.81 billion, a PE ratio of 23.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $196.38 and a 52 week high of $337.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $315.34 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $273.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.74 EPS. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 4.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business’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 transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. The trade was 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 company insiders.

Acuity Brands Company 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.