Private Client Services LLC Purchases 1,178 Shares of Acuity, Inc. $AYI

Private Client Services LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 63.0% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 3,048 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 1,178 shares during the period. Private Client Services LLC’s holdings in Acuity were worth $909,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AYI. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 9.2% during the 4th quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 7,550 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,206,000 after acquiring an additional 634 shares during the period. Focus Partners Wealth lifted its stake in Acuity by 40.9% in the 4th quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 5,265 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,540,000 after purchasing an additional 1,529 shares during the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Acuity by 63.0% in the 4th quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,221 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $357,000 after purchasing an additional 472 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Acuity by 32.0% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 83,369 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $24,355,000 after purchasing an additional 20,190 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in Acuity in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,185,000. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity

In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $301.04, for a total transaction 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 trade represents a 24.30% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,125 shares of the 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 sale, the senior vice president owned 6,638 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,980,115.40. This trade represents a 38.33% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Acuity Price Performance

AYI stock opened at $336.57 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $314.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $281.50. The company has a market capitalization of $10.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.52, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 1.65. Acuity, Inc. has a 52-week low of $216.81 and a 52-week high of $345.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a current ratio of 1.99.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 26th. The electronics maker reported $5.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.44 by $0.68. The firm had revenue of $1.18 billion during 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 company’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $4.15 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 18th were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 18th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.2%. Acuity’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.36%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on AYI. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Acuity from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Acuity from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Acuity from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $320.00 to $380.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Acuity from $335.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 27th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $352.60.

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.