Karen Holcom Sells 2,000 Shares of Acuity (NYSE:AYI) Stock

Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) CFO Karen Holcom sold 2,000 shares of Acuity stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.62, for a total transaction of $659,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 17,447 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,750,880.14. This trade represents a 10.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan.

Acuity Trading Up 1.7%

AYI opened at $334.12 on Friday. Acuity, Inc. has a twelve month low of $257.04 and a twelve month high of $380.17. The company has a fifty day moving average of $342.84 and a 200-day moving average of $308.87. The stock has a market cap of $10.00 billion, a PE ratio of 22.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 25th. The electronics maker reported $5.31 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.17 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $1.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.18 billion. Acuity had a return on equity of 20.26% and a net margin of 10.25%.The company’s revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $5.12 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Acuity, Inc. will post 18.49 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 17th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 17th. Acuity’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.31%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Acuity from $295.00 to $358.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Oppenheimer set a $465.00 price objective on shares of Acuity in a report on Friday, June 26th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Acuity from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Acuity from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 30th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Acuity from $315.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $397.17.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in AYI. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Acuity by 8,338.5% during the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,097 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $289,000 after buying an additional 1,084 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Acuity by 17.0% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 76,543 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $20,158,000 after acquiring an additional 11,144 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its position in shares of Acuity by 372.7% during the 2nd quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 208 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 164 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its stake in shares of Acuity by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,134 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $637,000 after purchasing an additional 37 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jump Financial LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $762,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Acuity

Acuity Brands, Inc (NYSE: AYI) is a leading provider of lighting fixtures, controls and building management solutions designed for commercial, institutional, industrial and residential markets. The company’s core offerings include a broad range of LED luminaires, lighting controls, sensors and networked building systems that enhance energy efficiency, occupant comfort and operational productivity. Acuity Brands’ portfolio spans indoor and outdoor lighting fixtures, emergency lighting, task lighting and architectural products, as well as advanced controls such as daylight harvesting, occupancy sensing and wireless sensor networks.

Beyond traditional lighting, Acuity Brands delivers integrated digital solutions through its Connected Building platform, which combines smart sensors, cloud-based analytics and mobile applications to enable real-time monitoring and remote management of lighting and environmental systems.