Acuity, Inc. $AYI Shares Sold by Jupiter Asset Management Ltd.

Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. lessened its stake in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 8.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 141,974 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 13,752 shares during the quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. owned approximately 0.46% of Acuity worth $48,894,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC grew its holdings in shares of Acuity by 50,220.2% during the second quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 2,268,433 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $676,764,000 after buying an additional 2,263,925 shares in the last quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP boosted its position in Acuity by 13.8% during the second quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,249,899 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $372,895,000 after acquiring an additional 151,414 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in Acuity by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 840,508 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $250,759,000 after acquiring an additional 50,491 shares during the period. Boston Partners raised its holdings in Acuity by 64.0% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 574,975 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $171,580,000 after acquiring an additional 224,469 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity during the 2nd quarter worth $119,587,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird set a $375.00 target price on Acuity in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Acuity in a report on Monday, December 29th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Acuity from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Acuity from $425.00 to $410.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Acuity from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, January 10th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $395.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Acuity news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 4,974 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $309.23, for a total value of $1,538,110.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 21,523 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,655,557.29. This trade represents a 18.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Acuity Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $311.82 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The company has a market cap of $9.56 billion, a PE ratio of 23.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.50. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $335.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $342.72. Acuity, Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.81 and a 52 week high of $380.17.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $4.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.45 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $1.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.14 billion. Acuity had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 9.04%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.97 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 13th. Investors of record on Monday, February 2nd were given a dividend of $0.20 per share. This is a boost from Acuity’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 2nd. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.3%. Acuity’s dividend payout ratio is presently 6.15%.

Acuity Profile

Acuity Brands, Inc (NYSE: AYI) is a leading provider of lighting fixtures, controls and building management solutions designed for commercial, institutional, industrial and residential markets. The company’s core offerings include a broad range of LED luminaires, lighting controls, sensors and networked building systems that enhance energy efficiency, occupant comfort and operational productivity. Acuity Brands’ portfolio spans indoor and outdoor lighting fixtures, emergency lighting, task lighting and architectural products, as well as advanced controls such as daylight harvesting, occupancy sensing and wireless sensor networks.

Beyond traditional lighting, Acuity Brands delivers integrated digital solutions through its Connected Building platform, which combines smart sensors, cloud-based analytics and mobile applications to enable real-time monitoring and remote management of lighting and environmental systems.