Perbak Capital Partners LLP Purchases New Position in Acuity, Inc. $AYI

Key Points

• Perbak Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Acuity, purchasing 1,207 shares for approximately $318,000 in the 1st quarter of the year.
• Several hedge funds have increased their positions in Acuity, with 98.21% of the stock now owned by institutional investors as of the latest reports.
• Acuity announced a quarterly dividend of $0.17 per share, with a current yield of 0.2%, reflecting a low payout ratio of 5.36%.

Perbak Capital Partners LLP purchased a new stake in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 1,207 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $318,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. lifted its stake in Acuity by 525.0% in the 1st quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 125 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new position in Acuity in the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Acuity by 45.3% in the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Acuity in the 4th quarter valued at about $79,000. Finally, Reyes Financial Architecture Inc. lifted its stake in Acuity by 31.7% in the 1st quarter. Reyes Financial Architecture Inc. now owns 320 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $84,000 after buying an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Acuity from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price target for the company from $320.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird raised their target price 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. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Acuity from $335.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of Acuity from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $352.60.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,125 shares of Acuity stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $298.30, for a total transaction of $1,230,487.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 6,638 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,980,115.40. The trade was a 38.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 6,000 shares of Acuity 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 18,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,628,243.84. This trade represents 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 currently owned by insiders.

Acuity Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:AYI traded down $0.75 during trading on Friday, hitting $338.65. The company's stock had a trading volume of 148,243 shares, compared to its average volume of 214,372. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $311.75 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $280.79. The company has a market capitalization of $10.38 billion, a PE ratio of 26.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.99. Acuity, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.81 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 26th. The electronics maker reported $5.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.44 by $0.68. The business had revenue of $1.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. Acuity had a net margin of 9.63% and a return on equity of 20.35%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $4.15 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Acuity's 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.