Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Shares Bought by Cetera Investment Advisers

Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 22.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,236 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,686 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in Acuity were worth $2,432,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Acuity by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,120,979 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $327,471,000 after purchasing an additional 8,705 shares during the period. Durable Capital Partners LP boosted its stake in shares of Acuity by 158.9% during the 4th quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $317,977,000 after acquiring an additional 668,048 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 603,446 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $176,285,000 after acquiring an additional 61,765 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity by 22.3% during the 4th quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 455,427 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $133,044,000 after acquiring an additional 82,947 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Acuity by 2.2% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 436,060 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $127,386,000 after acquiring an additional 9,513 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Acuity news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,125 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.30, for a total transaction of $1,230,487.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 6,638 shares in the company, valued at $1,980,115.40. This trade represents a 38.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.04, for a total value of $1,806,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 18,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,628,243.84. This trade represents a 24.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Acuity Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity stock opened at $307.61 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $9.43 billion, a PE ratio of 24.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.64. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $288.78 and a 200-day simple moving average of $281.26. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Acuity, Inc. has a 12 month low of $216.81 and a 12 month high of $345.30.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 26th. The electronics maker reported $5.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.44 by $0.68. The firm had revenue of $1.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.15 billion. Acuity had a return on equity of 20.35% and a net margin of 9.63%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.15 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Friday, July 18th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 18th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Acuity’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.36%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Acuity from $335.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Acuity from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Acuity from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Acuity from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Three investment 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. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $340.60.

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.