Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Purchases Shares of 8,700 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 8,700 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,782,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in Acuity Brands by 77.3% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the first quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 85.7% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 221 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the period. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 20.0% during the third quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 402 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $68,000 after purchasing an additional 67 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $246.84 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $255.68 and a 200 day moving average of $216.14. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 52 week low of $149.30 and a 52 week high of $272.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.64, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.02%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AYI. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $289.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Acuity Brands news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.