Ellevest Inc. Has $216,000 Stock Position in Acuity, Inc. $AYI

Ellevest Inc. lowered its stake in Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 40.0% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 724 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after selling 482 shares during the period. Ellevest Inc.’s holdings in Acuity were worth $216,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Hantz Financial Services Inc. grew its stake in Acuity by 1,100.0% during the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 96 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity by 525.0% during the 1st quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 125 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $33,000 after acquiring an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Reyes Financial Architecture Inc. increased its stake in Acuity by 31.7% in the first quarter. Reyes Financial Architecture Inc. now owns 320 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $84,000 after acquiring an additional 77 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped 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. Zacks Research upgraded Acuity from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Acuity in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Acuity from $380.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Acuity from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $395.17.

Acuity Trading Down 1.4%

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $358.35 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $10.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.95. Acuity, Inc. has a 52-week low of $216.81 and a 52-week high of $375.67. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $349.70 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $307.21.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

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 payout ratio is 5.43%.

Insider Activity at Acuity

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,489 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 28th. The shares were 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 $2,211,106.16. This represents a 42.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

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.