Element Capital Management LLC Acquires New Holdings in Acuity, Inc. $AYI

Key Points

• Element Capital Management LLC has acquired a new position in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI), purchasing 10,053 shares valued at approximately $2.65 million in the first quarter.
• Acuity reported $5.12 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding the consensus estimate by 15%, and experienced a 21.7% year-over-year revenue increase.
• Multiple analysts have raised their price targets for Acuity, with Morgan Stanley increasing theirs from $335 to $365 and Wall Street Zen upgrading the stock to a "strong-buy" rating.

Element Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 10,053 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $2,647,000.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Acuity during the first quarter valued at about $250,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Acuity by 12.1% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 863 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $227,000 after buying an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue increased its stake in Acuity by 3.0% in 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 in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Acuity by 16.6% in 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its stake in Acuity by 38.2% in 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 in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Acuity from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Acuity from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on 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 Acuity from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $340.60.

Acuity Stock Up 1.8%

NYSE AYI traded up $5.68 during trading on Monday, reaching $319.49. 284,992 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 297,862. 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 $9.79 billion, a PE ratio of 25.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.64. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $298.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $279.81.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 26th. The electronics maker reported $5.12 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $4.15 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,125 shares of Acuity stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $1,980,115.40. The trade was a 38.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 6,000 shares of Acuity stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, 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 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.