Bank of New York Mellon Corp Cuts Stock Holdings in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp cut its stake in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 1.7% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 262,582 shares of the electronics maker's stock after selling 4,569 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.85% of Acuity worth $69,151,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its holdings in shares of Acuity by 3.2% in the first quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 1,526 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $402,000 after buying an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Acuity by 6.5% in the fourth quarter. GeoWealth Management LLC now owns 790 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $231,000 after buying an additional 48 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in shares of Acuity by 50.5% in the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 161 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Acuity by 45.3% during the first quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $66,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Acuity by 6.6% during the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 1,345 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $393,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Price Performance

AYI traded down $4.26 on Friday, hitting $298.43. 200,151 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 308,465. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.99. The business's fifty day moving average is $275.90 and its 200 day moving average is $282.23. Acuity, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $216.81 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.62.

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

Acuity Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 18th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.23%. Acuity's dividend payout ratio is presently 5.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target 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. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Acuity from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Acuity from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $340.60.

Insider Activity at Acuity

In related news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 6,000 shares of the company's 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 of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,628,243.84. This represents a 24.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,125 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 6,638 shares in the company, valued at $1,980,115.40. The trade was a 38.33% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.