Acuity, Inc. $AYI Shares Bought by Squarepoint Ops LLC

Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its stake in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 700.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,723 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,133 shares during the period. Squarepoint Ops LLC’s holdings in Acuity were worth $3,796,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Hantz Financial Services Inc. lifted its position in Acuity by 1,100.0% in the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 96 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity during the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity in the 2nd quarter worth $36,000. Golden State Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 3,175.0% in the second quarter. Golden State Wealth Management LLC now owns 131 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 127 shares during the period. Finally, Rexford Capital Inc. bought a new position in Acuity during the second quarter valued at about $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AYI. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Acuity from $365.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Acuity from $312.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Acuity from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Acuity from $380.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Cowen reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Acuity in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $395.17.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,687 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $368.01, for a total value of $1,724,862.87. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 10,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,880,665.45. This represents a 30.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Stock Down 1.2%

AYI stock opened at $356.73 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.47, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.49. Acuity, Inc. has a 52-week low of $216.81 and a 52-week high of $379.17. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $361.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $328.77.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $5.20 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.84 by $0.36. Acuity had a net margin of 9.13% and a return on equity of 20.81%. The firm had revenue of $1.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $4.30 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 17.1% on a year-over-year basis. Acuity has set its FY 2026 guidance at 19.000-20.500 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 17th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. 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 payout ratio is currently 5.43%.

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.