Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Makes New Investment in Acuity, Inc. $AYI

Key Points

• Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC acquired 912 shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in Q1, valued at approximately $240,000, showing institutional interest in the electronics maker.
• Analysts have recently increased their price targets for Acuity, with Wells Fargo raising its target from $285 to $320 and Morgan Stanley from $335 to $365.
• Acuity reported a 21.7% year-over-year revenue growth, with earnings per share of $5.12 for the last quarter, surpassing estimates.

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC acquired a new position in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 912 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $240,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity in the first quarter worth approximately $250,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 863 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $227,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its stake in shares of 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 valued at $945,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Acuity by 16.6% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 99,827 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $26,290,000 after buying an additional 14,218 shares during the period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its position in Acuity by 38.2% during the first quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 186,021 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $48,989,000 after buying an additional 51,430 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Acuity Stock Up 0.6%

AYI traded up $2.07 on Wednesday, hitting $335.10. The company had a trading volume of 125,171 shares, compared to its average volume of 338,416. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.38. Acuity, Inc. has a 52-week low of $216.81 and a 52-week high of $345.30. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $304.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $280.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.00 and a beta of 1.64.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. Acuity had a net margin of 9.63% and a return on equity of 20.35%. Acuity's quarterly revenue was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $4.15 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Announces Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity

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

About Acuity

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.