Acuity, Inc. $AYI Shares Purchased by Impax Asset Management Group plc

Impax Asset Management Group plc grew its holdings in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 49.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 5,484 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,826 shares during the period. Impax Asset Management Group plc’s holdings in Acuity were worth $1,636,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Boston Partners lifted its stake in Acuity by 63.7% in the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 573,831 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $171,238,000 after buying an additional 223,325 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in shares of Acuity by 103.0% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 312,904 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $82,403,000 after acquiring an additional 158,741 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Acuity by 34.6% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 613,217 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $157,910,000 after acquiring an additional 157,790 shares during the period. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Acuity in the 1st quarter valued at about $33,325,000. Finally, Alyeska Investment Group L.P. bought a new stake in Acuity in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,341,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Acuity Trading Down 2.3%

Shares of AYI opened at $353.10 on Friday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $352.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $311.49. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.62. Acuity, Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.81 and a 1-year high of $375.67.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $5.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.84 by $0.36. The company had revenue of $1.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. Acuity had a net margin of 9.13% and a return on equity of 20.81%. The company’s revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $4.30 EPS. Acuity has set its FY 2026 guidance at 19.000-20.500 EPS. Analysts expect that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings cut Acuity from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, November 7th. Zacks Research upgraded Acuity from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Acuity in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Wall Street Zen cut Acuity from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Acuity from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. One 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $395.17.

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.