Acuity, Inc. (AYI) – What Are Researchers Saying About This Stock?

Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $374.20.

AYI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Acuity from $360.00 to $348.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on shares of Acuity from $440.00 to $415.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. William Blair cut Acuity from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, September 28th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Acuity from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, October 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Acuity from $410.00 to $380.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, October 20th.

Acuity Stock Performance

NYSE AYI opened at $323.44 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $313.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $310.15. Acuity has a 1-year low of $257.04 and a 1-year high of $380.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.61 billion, a PE ratio of 18.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.24.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $5.77 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $5.57 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $1.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.24 billion. Acuity had a net margin of 11.45% and a return on equity of 20.30%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $5.20 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Acuity will post 20.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 16th were issued a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 16th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Acuity’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity

In related news, CEO Neil Ashe sold 22,060 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $317.33, for a total transaction of $7,000,299.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 86,262 shares in the company, valued at $27,373,520.46. This represents a 20.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 3,800 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.48, for a total value of $1,221,624.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 6,580 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,115,338.40. This represents a 36.61% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 36,047 shares of company stock worth $11,537,354 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,121,983,000. Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in shares of Acuity in the second quarter valued at about $106,018,000. Alua Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Acuity during the first quarter worth about $63,377,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in shares of Acuity during the second quarter worth about $77,212,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of Acuity by 87.9% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 213,801 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $59,911,000 after buying an additional 100,036 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Company Profile

Acuity (NYSE: AYI) designs, manufactures and sells lighting and building-management solutions. Its offerings include indoor and outdoor luminaires, lighting controls, building automation systems and related software for commercial, industrial, institutional and residential settings.

The company sells products under a portfolio of brands, including Lithonia Lighting, Juno, Peerless, Gotham and Distech Controls. Its solutions help customers manage lighting, building systems and energy use across a range of facilities.

Founded in 2001 as a spin-off from National Service Industries, Acuity is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and serves customers in North America and selected international markets.