Strs Ohio Buys Shares of 8,845 Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Strs Ohio bought a new stake in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 8,845 shares of the electronics maker’s stock, valued at approximately $1,811,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Aurora Investment Counsel grew its position in Acuity Brands by 0.8% in the third quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 5,938 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,011,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. SouthState Corp boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.3% during the third quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 1,854 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $316,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.2% during the second quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 5,464 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $891,000 after purchasing an additional 64 shares in the last quarter. 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AYI. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target 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 lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $289.25.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $247.06 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $255.81 and its 200 day moving average is $217.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 1.96. The firm has a market cap of $7.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.49. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a one year low of $149.30 and a one year high of $272.74.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Acuity Brands news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.