Acuity, Inc. $AYI Shares Acquired by Burney Co.

Burney Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 32.5% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 1,686 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after buying an additional 414 shares during the quarter. Burney Co.’s holdings in Acuity were worth $503,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted 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 buying an additional 14,071 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity by 1.7% during the first quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,139,857 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $300,181,000 after buying an additional 18,878 shares during the period. Durable Capital Partners LP lifted its position in Acuity by 0.9% in the first quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,098,485 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $289,286,000 after purchasing an additional 10,008 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in Acuity by 3.0% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 832,491 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $219,237,000 after purchasing an additional 24,225 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Acuity by 34.6% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 613,217 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $157,910,000 after purchasing an additional 157,790 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of Acuity stock opened at $363.28 on Thursday. Acuity, Inc. has a 12-month low of $216.81 and a 12-month high of $375.67. 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 cap of $11.12 billion, a PE ratio of 28.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a 50-day moving average of $349.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $306.85.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,687 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $1,724,862.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 10,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,880,665.45. This trade represents a 30.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Acuity from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Cowen restated a “buy” rating on shares of Acuity in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Acuity from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Acuity from $365.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Acuity in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock 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.