BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S Boosts Stake in Acuity, Inc. $AYI

Key Points

• BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S increased its stake in Acuity, Inc. by 102%, owning a total of 4,329 shares worth approximately $1.14 million as of the end of the most recent quarter.
• Analysts have varied outlooks, with Morgan Stanley raising its price target for Acuity from $335.00 to $365.00, while the average target price across analysts is set at $340.60 with a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy."
• Acuity reported earnings of $5.12 EPS for the last quarter, exceeding expectations, with revenues of $1.18 billion, marking an increase of 21.7% year over year.

BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S increased its position in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 102.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 4,329 shares of the electronics maker's stock after purchasing an additional 2,186 shares during the quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S's holdings in Acuity were worth $1,140,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Durable Capital Partners LP raised its holdings in Acuity by 158.9% during the fourth quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $317,977,000 after purchasing an additional 668,048 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Acuity by 29,415.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 227,271 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $59,852,000 after purchasing an additional 226,501 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its holdings in Acuity by 1,256.1% during the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 161,183 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $47,086,000 after purchasing an additional 149,297 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Acuity during the first quarter worth $27,740,000. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in Acuity during the fourth quarter worth $27,507,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on AYI. Wall Street Zen raised Acuity from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Acuity from $335.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Acuity from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Acuity from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $340.60.

Acuity Price Performance

Acuity stock traded up $12.6310 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $326.9210. 144,261 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 270,855. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.38. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $301.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $279.73. The company has a market capitalization of $10.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.76, a PEG ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.64. Acuity, Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.81 and a 12-month high of $345.30.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. Acuity had a return on equity of 20.35% and a net margin of 9.63%.Acuity's revenue was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.15 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 18th were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 18th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Acuity's payout ratio is currently 5.36%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,125 shares of Acuity 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 sale, the senior vice president owned 6,638 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,980,115.40. The trade was a 38.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 6,000 shares of Acuity 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 sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 18,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,628,243.84. This represents a 24.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.