Trexquant Investment LP Sells 38,579 Shares of Acuity, Inc. $AYI

Trexquant Investment LP lowered its position in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 93.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,774 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 38,579 shares during the quarter. Trexquant Investment LP’s holdings in Acuity were worth $731,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Acuity by 0.5% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,118,613 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $821,287,000 after buying an additional 14,071 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Acuity by 1.7% in the first 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. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 24,225 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Acuity by 1.1% in the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 349,463 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $92,031,000 after buying an additional 3,845 shares during the period. Finally, Earnest Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of Acuity by 4.9% in the first quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 262,601 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $69,156,000 after buying an additional 12,279 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity

In other Acuity news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,125 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 6,638 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,980,115.40. This trade represents a 38.33% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $1,806,240.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 18,696 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,628,243.84. This trade represents a 24.30% 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Acuity Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $338.65 on Monday. Acuity, Inc. has a 52 week low of $216.81 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $311.75 and a 200-day moving average of $280.19. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a market cap of $10.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.89 and a beta of 1.65.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 26th. The electronics maker reported $5.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.44 by $0.68. Acuity had a return on equity of 20.35% and a net margin of 9.63%.The company had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.15 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $4.15 EPS. Acuity’s quarterly revenue was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

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

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.