State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Has $2.90 Million Holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D reduced its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 32.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 12,002 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 5,745 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $2,898,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% in the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 900.0% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Evermay Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $61,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Wells Fargo & Company cut Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $267.91 on Thursday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $156.84 and a fifty-two week high of $272.74. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $246.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $252.38. The firm has a market cap of $8.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.41. 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 (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The business had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.52 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.50 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 18th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 4.88%.

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.