State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System Increases Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System increased its stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 33.9% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 38,071 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 9,630 shares during the quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System owned 0.12% of Acuity Brands worth $10,231,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 77.3% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% during the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 85.7% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 221 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 900.0% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $254.50 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $251.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $248.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.15. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $156.49 and a 12-month high of $272.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The business had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.50 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 18th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.24%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.88%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the subject of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $279.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Acuity Brands news, Director Maya Leibman purchased 200 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,782. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

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.