AXQ Capital LP Sells 411 Shares of Acuity, Inc. $AYI

AXQ Capital LP trimmed its holdings in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 32.8% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 842 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 411 shares during the period. AXQ Capital LP’s holdings in Acuity were worth $251,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Matrix Trust Co boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 8.7% in the second quarter. Matrix Trust Co now owns 565 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $169,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acuity by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,935 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $510,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the period. Comerica Bank lifted its holdings in Acuity by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 15,389 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $4,053,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares in the last quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Acuity by 3.9% in the 2nd quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 1,357 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $405,000 after purchasing an additional 51 shares during the period. Finally, US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in Acuity by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,188 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $840,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Acuity news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,687 shares of Acuity stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 2.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Acuity from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 25th. Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Acuity in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Acuity from $312.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Acuity from $380.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Acuity from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 15th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $395.17.

Acuity Trading Up 1.8%

NYSE AYI opened at $355.71 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $354.13 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $317.30. Acuity, Inc. has a twelve month low of $216.81 and a twelve month high of $375.67. The company has a market capitalization of $10.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.39, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.62.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $5.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.84 by $0.36. The firm had revenue of $1.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.23 billion. Acuity had a return on equity of 20.81% and a net margin of 9.13%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $4.30 EPS. Acuity has set its FY 2026 guidance at 19.000-20.500 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Announces Dividend

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

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.