Acuity, Inc. $AYI Stock Holdings Decreased by HighTower Advisors LLC

HighTower Advisors LLC reduced its position in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 17.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,508 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 513 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in Acuity were worth $660,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AYI. Mariner LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity by 52.0% in the fourth quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 2,111 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $617,000 after acquiring an additional 722 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Acuity by 19.7% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 32,841 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $9,595,000 after acquiring an additional 5,402 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Acuity by 11.1% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 345,618 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $100,965,000 after acquiring an additional 34,562 shares in the last quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity by 79.8% in the fourth quarter. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 45,687 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $13,347,000 after acquiring an additional 20,277 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Utah Retirement Systems boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 5,127 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,498,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Price Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $329.69 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.10 billion, a PE ratio of 25.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.05 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $306.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $280.56. Acuity, Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.81 and a 12-month high of $345.30.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results 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 net margin of 9.63% and a return on equity of 20.35%. The company’s revenue was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $4.15 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 18th were paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 18th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Acuity’s payout ratio is 5.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the subject of several research reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price target 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 upgraded shares of Acuity from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Acuity from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Acuity from $335.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $340.60.

About Acuity

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.