Teacher Retirement System of Texas Has $7.79 Million Holdings in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas decreased its position in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 18.1% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 29,576 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 6,547 shares during the quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas owned 0.10% of Acuity worth $7,789,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity in the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 50.5% in the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 161 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $47,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 45.3% in the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the last quarter. Transce3nd LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity in the fourth quarter worth about $71,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 520.0% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 248 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 208 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Acuity from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Acuity from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Acuity from $335.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Acuity from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $340.60.

Acuity Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of Acuity stock traded down $0.99 on Wednesday, hitting $303.11. The stock had a trading volume of 214,196 shares, compared to its average volume of 307,674. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $273.77 and a 200 day moving average of $282.26. Acuity, Inc. has a twelve month low of $216.81 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.89, a PEG ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.62.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 26th. The electronics maker reported $5.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.44 by $0.68. Acuity had a return on equity of 20.35% and a net margin of 9.63%. The company had revenue of $1.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $4.15 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 18th. Acuity's dividend payout ratio is presently 5.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Acuity news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,125 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.30, for a total transaction of $1,230,487.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president owned 6,638 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,980,115.40. This represents a 38.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.04, for a total transaction of $1,806,240.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 18,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,628,243.84. This represents a 24.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.80% of the company's stock.

Acuity 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.