Walleye Capital LLC Buys 34,533 Shares of Acuity, Inc. $AYI

Walleye Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 154.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 56,831 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 34,533 shares during the quarter. Walleye Capital LLC owned 0.19% of Acuity worth $16,955,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Acuity in the second quarter valued at approximately $115,595,000. Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of Acuity by 64.0% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 574,975 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $171,580,000 after acquiring an additional 224,469 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity by 103.0% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 312,904 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $82,403,000 after acquiring an additional 158,741 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 34.6% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 613,217 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $157,910,000 after acquiring an additional 157,790 shares in the last quarter. Finally, T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Acuity during the 1st quarter worth $33,325,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on AYI shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded Acuity from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, November 15th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Acuity from $365.00 to $425.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Acuity from $312.00 to $356.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Acuity from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Cowen reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Acuity in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $395.17.

Acuity Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $374.56 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.47 billion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.49. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $358.48 and its 200 day simple moving average is $322.03. 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, Inc. has a one year low of $216.81 and a one year high of $379.17.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $5.20 earnings per share (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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.23 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $4.30 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter 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, research analysts forecast that Acuity, Inc. will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Announces Dividend

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Acuity news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,489 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $365.11, for a total transaction of $1,638,978.79. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 6,056 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,211,106.16. This trade represents a 42.57% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

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.