Lightrock Netherlands B.V. Raises Stock Position in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Lightrock Netherlands B.V. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 63.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,413 shares of the electronics maker's stock after buying an additional 6,359 shares during the quarter. Lightrock Netherlands B.V. owned approximately 0.05% of Acuity worth $4,330,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $906,930,000 after purchasing an additional 16,407 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,120,979 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $327,471,000 after purchasing an additional 8,705 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Acuity by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $326,452,000 after purchasing an additional 103,162 shares during the period. Durable Capital Partners LP boosted its position in shares of Acuity by 158.9% in 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 period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 644,109 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $188,211,000 after purchasing an additional 17,299 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Acuity from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price 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 upped their target price on shares of Acuity from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price 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. Three equities 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $340.60.

Acuity Stock Performance

AYI stock traded down $0.85 during trading on Friday, reaching $305.17. The company had a trading volume of 167,949 shares, compared to its average volume of 307,508. Acuity, Inc. has a twelve month low of $216.81 and a twelve month high of $345.30. 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 company has a market cap of $9.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.62. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $270.03 and a 200-day simple moving average of $282.20.

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

Acuity Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 18th. Acuity's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.36%.

Insider Activity at Acuity

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,125 shares of Acuity 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 6,638 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,980,115.40. The trade was a 38.33% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 6,000 shares of Acuity 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 directly owned 18,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $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. 2.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.