Creative Planning Raises Stock Position in Acuity, Inc. $AYI

Creative Planning increased its position in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,721 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 171 shares during the quarter. Creative Planning’s holdings in Acuity were worth $1,409,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 22.0% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,772 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $529,000 after purchasing an additional 319 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its position in Acuity by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 7,863 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,346,000 after buying an additional 534 shares in the last quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc raised its stake in Acuity by 49.9% in the second quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 5,484 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,636,000 after buying an additional 1,826 shares during the last quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey boosted its holdings in Acuity by 5.2% in the second quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 11,740 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,503,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Acuity by 8.5% during the second quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,522 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $454,000 after acquiring an additional 119 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Acuity from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Acuity in a research note on Tuesday. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Acuity in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Acuity from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 15th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $395.17.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,489 shares of Acuity stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $365.11, for a total transaction of $1,638,978.79. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 6,056 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,211,106.16. This trade represents a 42.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Acuity Stock Up 0.1%

AYI stock opened at $366.42 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.62. Acuity, Inc. has a 12 month low of $216.81 and a 12 month high of $375.67. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $356.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $319.38. 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 (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $5.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.84 by $0.36. Acuity had a net margin of 9.13% and a return on equity of 20.81%. The company had revenue of $1.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $4.30 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. Acuity has set its FY 2026 guidance at 19.000-20.500 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 17th were paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Acuity’s dividend payout ratio 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.