Acuity, Inc. $AYI Shares Purchased by Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund boosted its stake in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 19.0% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 17,746 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,839 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in Acuity were worth $5,294,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its position in Acuity by 1,100.0% during the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 96 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity during the second quarter valued at $32,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. increased its position in Acuity by 525.0% during the 1st quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 125 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new stake in Acuity during the 2nd quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Acuity by 3,175.0% in the 2nd quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 127 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Trading Down 1.1%

NYSE AYI opened at $359.26 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $351.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $310.85. Acuity, Inc. has a one year low of $216.81 and a one year high of $375.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.67, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.62.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 17th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 17th. Acuity’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.43%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Acuity from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 1st. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Acuity from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday. Zacks Research raised shares of Acuity from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Acuity in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Acuity from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Acuity has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $395.17.

Insider Activity at Acuity

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,687 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $368.01, for a total transaction of $1,724,862.87. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 10,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,880,665.45. The trade was a 30.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

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.