Barry Goldman Sells 4,687 Shares of Acuity (NYSE:AYI) Stock

Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) SVP Barry Goldman sold 4,687 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.01, for a total transaction of $1,724,862.87. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 10,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,880,665.45. This trade represents a 30.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Acuity Price Performance

Shares of Acuity stock opened at $362.45 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.33. Acuity, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.81 and a fifty-two week high of $375.67. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $344.59 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $301.44. The company has a market cap of $11.11 billion, a PE ratio of 28.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.64.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 17th. Acuity’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.43%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of Acuity from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Acuity from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Acuity from $380.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Acuity in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Acuity from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $395.17.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity in the 1st quarter valued at about $250,000. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new stake in Acuity in the 1st quarter valued at about $379,000. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in Acuity by 20.7% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 28,533 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $7,514,000 after acquiring an additional 4,886 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity in the 2nd quarter valued at about $407,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in Acuity by 12.6% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 542,715 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $142,907,000 after acquiring an additional 60,784 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Company 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.