Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Cuts Position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lowered its holdings in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 11.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 14,907 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 1,928 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Acuity Brands were worth $4,355,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.8% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 172 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the period. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 40.9% during the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 179 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 52 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AYI. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $309.32 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The business has a fifty day moving average of $316.99 and a 200-day moving average of $299.65. The stock has a market cap of $9.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.72 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Acuity Brands 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.