Ashford Capital Management Inc. Sells 7,983 Shares of Acuity, Inc. $AYI

Ashford Capital Management Inc. cut its holdings in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 12.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 56,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 7,983 shares during the period. Acuity makes up approximately 2.0% of Ashford Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 23rd largest position. Ashford Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.18% of Acuity worth $16,849,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Acuity by 4.3% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,403 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $369,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Acuity by 2.5% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 213,836 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $56,314,000 after acquiring an additional 5,160 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in Acuity by 693.2% during the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,277 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $336,000 after acquiring an additional 1,116 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in Acuity by 75.7% in the 1st quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 1,246 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $328,000 after acquiring an additional 537 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity during the 1st quarter worth $27,740,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on AYI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Acuity from $312.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Zacks Research lowered Acuity from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Acuity in a research report on Monday, December 8th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Acuity from $365.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Acuity from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, November 15th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $395.17.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,687 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.01, for a total value of $1,724,862.87. Following the transaction, the senior vice president owned 10,545 shares in the company, valued at $3,880,665.45. The trade was a 30.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Acuity Stock Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $363.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.96 and a beta of 1.49. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $361.11 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $326.92. Acuity, Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.81 and a 52 week high of $379.17.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $4.84 by $0.36. Acuity had a net margin of 9.13% and a return on equity of 20.81%. The firm had revenue of $1.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.23 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $4.30 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 17.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Acuity has set its FY 2026 guidance at 19.000-20.500 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 17th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Acuity’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.43%.

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.