Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Invests $1.78 Million in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 8,700 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $1,782,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,365,821 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $573,233,000 after purchasing an additional 17,459 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,313,389 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $627,225,000 after acquiring an additional 60,541 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.9% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,982,396 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $564,568,000 after acquiring an additional 25,598 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 19.3% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,208,990 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $228,862,000 after purchasing an additional 195,515 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 620.3% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,197,721 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $198,355,000 after purchasing an additional 1,031,432 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report 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. Oppenheimer increased their target price 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, StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, April 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $289.25.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 1.50% of the company's stock.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock traded up $0.21 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $247.07. 253,770 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 269,098. The company has a market capitalization of $7.61 billion, a PE ratio of 20.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.49. The business has a fifty day moving average of $255.68 and a 200 day moving average of $216.14. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 1-year low of $149.30 and a 1-year high of $272.74. 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 Dividend Announcement

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

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.