Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Sells 3,034 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund reduced its position in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 43,643 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 3,034 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $10,537,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in Acuity Brands by 4,214.3% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 302 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $73,000 after acquiring an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd increased its position in Acuity Brands by 14.7% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $128,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $306.77 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.77. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a twelve month low of $156.84 and a twelve month high of $307.24. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $252.99 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $254.39. The firm has a market cap of $9.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.94, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.74 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $324.00.

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.