Alyeska Investment Group L.P. Makes New Investment in Acuity, Inc. $AYI

Key Points

• Alyeska Investment Group L.P. acquired 107,616 shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI), valued at approximately $28.3 million, representing around 0.35% of the company's total shares.
• Acuity's earnings for the latest quarter were $5.12 EPS, surpassing analysts' expectations of $4.44, with a revenue increase of 21.7% year-over-year.
• The company's recent quarterly dividend was $0.17, resulting in an annualized yield of 0.2%, and it has a low dividend payout ratio of 5.36%.

Alyeska Investment Group L.P. purchased a new stake in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 107,616 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $28,341,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. owned about 0.35% of Acuity at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity in the first quarter valued at about $250,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Acuity by 12.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 863 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $227,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its position in shares of Acuity by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 3,592 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $945,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Acuity by 16.6% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 99,827 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $26,290,000 after purchasing an additional 14,218 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its stake in shares of Acuity by 38.2% during the 1st quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 186,021 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $48,989,000 after purchasing an additional 51,430 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of 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 Acuity from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $320.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised Acuity from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Acuity from $335.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $352.60.

Insider Activity

In other Acuity news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.04, for a total transaction of $1,806,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 18,696 shares in the company, valued at $5,628,243.84. This represents a 24.30% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,125 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $298.30, for a total value of $1,230,487.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 6,638 shares in the company, valued at $1,980,115.40. This represents a 38.33% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 2.80% of the company's stock.

Acuity Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity stock traded up $1.78 on Wednesday, hitting $330.19. The stock had a trading volume of 59,399 shares, compared to its average volume of 331,454. Acuity, Inc. has a twelve month low of $216.81 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The business's 50 day moving average is $312.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $280.72. 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 cap of $10.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.65.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 26th. The electronics maker reported $5.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.44 by $0.68. Acuity had a return on equity of 20.35% and a net margin of 9.63%.The firm had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $4.15 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 21.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Acuity's dividend payout ratio is 5.36%.

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.