Acuity, Inc. $AYI Shares Bought by Voya Investment Management LLC

Key Points

• Voya Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Acuity, Inc. by 13.5% during Q1, owning 58,849 shares valued at approximately $15.5 million.
• Wall Street analysts have raised their price targets for Acuity, with estimates ranging from $335 to $380, indicating a generally positive outlook on the stock.
• Acuity reported a strong earnings performance with $5.12 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations and representing a 21.7% year-over-year revenue growth.

Voya Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 13.5% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 58,849 shares of the electronics maker's stock after acquiring an additional 6,986 shares during the quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC owned approximately 0.19% of Acuity worth $15,498,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its holdings in Acuity by 2.4% in the first quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,935 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $510,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Acuity by 3.2% in the 1st quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 1,526 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $402,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Comerica Bank raised its holdings in Acuity by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 15,389 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $4,053,000 after acquiring an additional 51 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE grew its stake in shares of Acuity by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,188 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $840,000 after buying an additional 55 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity by 15.0% during the 1st quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 429 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $113,000 after purchasing an additional 56 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AYI shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Acuity from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Acuity from $335.00 to $365.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, June 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Acuity from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $320.00 to $380.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, 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. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $352.60.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity

In other 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 sale, the senior vice president directly owned 6,638 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,980,115.40. This trade represents a 38.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 6,000 shares of the firm's 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 completion of the transaction, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Acuity Price Performance

NYSE AYI traded down $8.21 on Friday, hitting $336.31. 621,545 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 215,702. The company has a current ratio of 1.99, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Acuity, Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.81 and a 1-year high of $348.61. The company has a market cap of $10.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.65. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $318.55 and a two-hundred day moving average of $283.15.

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

Acuity Announces Dividend

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

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.