Acuity, Inc. $AYI Shares Sold by AlphaQuest LLC

Key Points

• AlphaQuest LLC reduced its stake in Acuity, Inc. by 84.8%, selling 4,921 shares and owning 884 shares worth $233,000 at the quarter's end.
• Acuity recently reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $5.12, exceeding analysts' expectations, with a year-over-year revenue increase of 21.7%.
• The company disclosed a quarterly dividend of $0.17 per share, translating to an annualized dividend yield of 0.2%.

AlphaQuest LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 84.8% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 884 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 4,921 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC's holdings in Acuity were worth $233,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AYI. Durable Capital Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Acuity by 158.9% during the 4th quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $317,977,000 after acquiring an additional 668,048 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity by 29,415.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 227,271 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $59,852,000 after acquiring an additional 226,501 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its position in shares of Acuity by 1,256.1% during the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 161,183 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $47,086,000 after acquiring an additional 149,297 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $33,325,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,740,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Price Performance

Shares of Acuity stock traded down $4.17 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $329.11. 55,621 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 335,970. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Acuity, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.81 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.00, a P/E/G ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.65. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $309.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $280.31.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 26th. The electronics maker reported $5.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $4.15 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share 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 issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 18th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.2%. Acuity's payout ratio is 5.36%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AYI shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Acuity from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Acuity from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Acuity from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $320.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Acuity from $335.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $352.60.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity

In other Acuity news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,125 shares of the business's stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 6,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,980,115.40. The trade was a 38.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 6,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.04, for a total value of $1,806,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 18,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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. Insiders own 2.80% of the company's stock.

Acuity 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.