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

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund raised its stake in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 19.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 17,746 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,839 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.06% of Acuity worth $5,294,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acuity by 0.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,118,613 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $821,287,000 after purchasing an additional 14,071 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Acuity by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,139,857 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $300,181,000 after buying an additional 18,878 shares during the period. Durable Capital Partners LP raised its position in Acuity by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,098,485 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $289,286,000 after buying an additional 10,008 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Acuity by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 832,491 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $219,237,000 after buying an additional 24,225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake 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. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Stock Performance

AYI opened at $359.26 on Wednesday. Acuity, Inc. has a 1-year low of $216.81 and a 1-year high of $375.67. The stock has a market cap of $11.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.62. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $351.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $310.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.33.

Acuity Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,687 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the senior vice president directly owned 10,545 shares in the company, valued at $3,880,665.45. The trade was a 30.77% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Acuity from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their target price on Acuity from $312.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Acuity from $365.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. TD Cowen upped their price objective on Acuity from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Acuity from $380.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $395.17.

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.