United Services Automobile Association Purchases Shares of 2,023 Acuity, Inc. $AYI

Key Points

• United Services Automobile Association acquired 2,023 shares of Acuity, Inc. valued at approximately $530,000 during the first quarter.
• Acuity's stock received several upgrades from analysts, with target prices ranging from $335 to $380, leading to a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy."
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.17 per share, translating to an annualized yield of 0.2% with a payout ratio of 5.36%.

United Services Automobile Association purchased a new stake in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 2,023 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $530,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 525.0% in the 1st quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 125 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the last quarter. True Wealth Design LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity during the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 45.3% during the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $66,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Menard Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity during the 4th quarter valued at $79,000. Finally, Reyes Financial Architecture Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 31.7% during the 1st quarter. Reyes Financial Architecture Inc. now owns 320 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $84,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the topic of several recent research reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Acuity from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of Acuity from $335.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Acuity from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $320.00 to $380.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Acuity from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $352.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,125 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 1st. The shares were 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 approximately $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 at the SEC website. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 6,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.04, for a total transaction 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 $5,628,243.84. The trade was a 24.30% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 2.80% of the company's stock.

Acuity Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $330.84 on Thursday. Acuity, Inc. has a 12 month low of $216.81 and a 12 month high of $345.30. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $10.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 1.65. The company's fifty day moving average price is $313.45 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $281.07.

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 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 firm had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $4.15 EPS. The firm's revenue was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share 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 issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 18th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Acuity's payout ratio is currently 5.36%.

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.

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