Vestcor Inc Acquires New Position in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

Vestcor Inc acquired a new stake in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 1,958 shares of the electronics maker's stock, valued at approximately $516,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. raised its holdings in 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 buying an additional 105 shares during the period. True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity in the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. National Bank of Canada FI raised its holdings in Acuity by 50.5% in the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 161 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 54 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in Acuity by 45.3% in the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $66,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the period. Finally, Transce3nd LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity in the 4th quarter valued at about $71,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Acuity Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity stock opened at $304.87 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $286.83 and a 200 day moving average of $281.19. 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 12 month low of $216.81 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.87 and a beta of 1.64.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last issued 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. Acuity had a return on equity of 20.35% and a net margin of 9.63%. The company had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.15 EPS. Acuity's revenue was up 21.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity

In other Acuity news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,125 shares of the company's 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 sale, the senior vice president owned 6,638 shares in the company, valued at $1,980,115.40. This represents a 38.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 6,000 shares of Acuity stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $301.04, for a total value of $1,806,240.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 18,696 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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 corporate 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.

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