Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Has $5.87 Million Stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund decreased its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 30.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 28,637 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 12,301 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund owned about 0.09% of Acuity Brands worth $5,866,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,365,821 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $573,233,000 after buying an additional 17,459 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,149,459 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $235,444,000 after purchasing an additional 45,666 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 41.5% in the 3rd quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 844,969 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $143,907,000 after purchasing an additional 247,774 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 820,077 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $139,667,000 after purchasing an additional 89,192 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 6.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 625,077 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $128,035,000 after purchasing an additional 36,488 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $287.75.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other 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, for a total transaction of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at $49,782. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at $5,320,062.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $259.02 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $256.74 and its 200-day moving average is $241.34. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52-week low of $154.72 and a 52-week high of $272.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 2.59. The company has a market cap of $7.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.66, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.44.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 9.81% and a return on equity of 21.22%. The company had revenue of $905.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $897.01 million. Equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.23%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

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.