Teacher Retirement System of Texas Increases Stock Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas raised its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 23.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 36,123 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,795 shares during the period. Teacher Retirement System of Texas owned 0.12% of Acuity Brands worth $10,553,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,026,000. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $19,703,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 741.8% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 71,744 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $20,959,000 after purchasing an additional 63,221 shares during the last quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 345.0% in the fourth quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 72,761 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $21,404,000 after purchasing an additional 56,409 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $13,394,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $264.17 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $307.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $303.18. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.64 and a 1-year high of $345.30. The company has a market cap of $8.18 billion, a PE ratio of 19.45, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.26%. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.01%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AYI. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

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.