Acuity Inc. (de)
AYI on NYSE. Acuity sells lighting, controls, and building management systems to businesses and building owners. Market value $9.1bn.
Price checks use the past 12 months to May 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to August 2025.
Should I look at this?
Worth a closer look
Why it could be worth it
What to watch out for
Nothing stood out in the numbers we check.
This is not advice. Check the numbers below.
For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $7.05 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.
You pay 14.0 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.
Each dollar kept in the business earns 18 cents a year. Above 10 is good.
Quality score: 96 of 100. Price score: 91 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.
$302.98 a share, 18% above its 1-year low
Over the past year the price has ranged from $257.04 to $380.17.
Dividend: 0.2% a year
Paid every year for at least 5 years
Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).
Five years of cash, in billions
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue | $3.5bn | $4.0bn | $4.0bn | $3.8bn | $4.3bn |
| Operating margin | |||||
| Operating margin | 12.4% | 12.7% | 12.0% | 14.4% | 13.0% |
| Debt to equity | |||||
| Debt to equity | 0.24 | 0.27 | 0.25 | 0.21 | 0.33 |
| Shares outstanding | |||||
| Shares outstanding | 0.03bn | 0.03bn | 0.03bn | 0.03bn | 0.03bn |
Health checks
- Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
- Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
- Financial strength (Piotroski)5 of 8 checks we could run
- Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
- Debt0.33× equity
- Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 5.5% a year
- Buying back its own sharesYes, 8% fewer since 2021
The quarter to May 2026
How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
- Sales: $1.2 billion last quarter, about the same as a year ago.
- Profit: $141 million, up 43% on a year ago.
- It keeps 14 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 13 cents a year earlier.
- Spare cash over the past 12 months: $639 million, up from $506 million.
- 2% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
- Debt is $285 million more than cash, down from $625 million a year ago.
- Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| August 2024 | $1.0bn |
| November 2024 | $952m |
| February 2025 | $1.0bn |
| May 2025 | $1.2bn |
| August 2025 | $1.2bn |
| November 2025 | $1.1bn |
| February 2026 | $1.1bn |
| May 2026 | $1.2bn |
| Quarter to | Amount |
|---|---|
| August 2024 | $119m |
| November 2024 | $107m |
| February 2025 | $78m |
| May 2025 | $98m |
| August 2025 | $114m |
| November 2025 | $121m |
| February 2026 | $97m |
| May 2026 | $141m |
From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.
Dates
- Next results (estimated)
- n/a
- Last annual report (10-K)
- 27 October 2025
- Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
- 24 September 2026
Who owns it
6 long-term investors we follow own it, down from 7 last quarter. 636 funds in all.
- Markel GroupTom Gayner
- Value
- $4m
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
- GAMCO InvestorsMario Gabelli
- Value
- $792,869
- Share of fund
- <0.1%
| Fund | Value | Share of that fund | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boston PartnersBoston Partners team | $202m | 0.2% | Cut |
| Gotham Asset ManagementJoel Greenblatt | $46m | 0.1% | Added |
| GMOJeremy Grantham | $5m | <0.1% | Cut |
| Markel GroupTom Gayner | $4m | <0.1% | |
| Polaris Capital ManagementBernard Horn | $3m | 0.3% | Added |
| GAMCO InvestorsMario Gabelli | $792,869 | <0.1% |
Sold out this quarter
Largest holders overall
- FMR$1.4bnAdded
- BlackRock$1.1bnCut
- Vanguard Portfolio Management$541m
- Vanguard Capital Management$516m
- AQR Capital Management$471mAdded
- State Street$364mAdded
- Fuller & Thaler Asset Management$291mAdded
- Geode Capital Management$289mAdded
- Dimensional Fund Advisors LP$289mAdded
- American Century Companies$280m
From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
Big holders and activists
3 investors own more than 5%.
- FMR LLCPassive investorat least 12.0%+4.3 pts(filed with 1 related holder)Since 30 April 2026
- BlackRock, Inc.Passive investor8.9%Since 31 March 2025
- Vanguard Capital ManagementPassive investor5.2%Since 31 March 2026
- The Vanguard GroupPassive investorSold down below 5%Since 13 March 2026
| Holder | Stake | Since | |
|---|---|---|---|
FMR LLC Passive investor | at least 12.0%+4.3 pts (filed with 1 related holder) | 30 April 2026 | |
BlackRock, Inc. Passive investor | 8.9% | 31 March 2025 | |
Vanguard Capital Management Passive investor | 5.2% | 31 March 2026 | |
The Vanguard Group Passive investor | Sold down below 5% | 13 March 2026 |
From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.
What insiders did
In the last 12 months, 2 insiders bought $340,746 of shares on the open market. 2 sold $7m, $3m of it under preset trading plans.
- HOLCOM KAREN JSVP & Chief Financial OfficerSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 1 September 2026
- Shares
- 2,000
- Price
- $329.62
- Value
- $659,240
- GOLDMAN BARRY RSVP & General CounselSold
- Date
- 2 July 2026
- Shares
- 1,200
- Price
- $365.65
- Value
- $438,780
- HOLCOM KAREN JSVP & Chief Financial OfficerSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 1 June 2026
- Shares
- 2,076
- Price
- $303.14
- Value
- $629,319
- Leibman MayaDirectorBought
- Date
- 30 April 2026
- Shares
- 200
- Price
- $288.83
- Value
- $57,766
- O'Shaughnessy LauraDirectorBought
- Date
- 8 April 2026
- Shares
- 1,000
- Price
- $282.98
- Value
- $282,980
- HOLCOM KAREN JSVP & Chief Financial OfficerSoldunder a preset trading plan
- Date
- 28 January 2026
- Shares
- 4,974
- Price
- $309.23
- Value
- $2m
- GOLDMAN BARRY RSVP & General CounselSold
- Date
- 28 October 2025
- Shares
- 4,489
- Price
- $365.11
- Value
- $2m
- GOLDMAN BARRY RSVP & General CounselSold
- Date
- 24 October 2025
- Shares
- 4,687
- Price
- $368.01
- Value
- $2m
| Date | Who | Did | Shares | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 September 2026 | HOLCOM KAREN J SVP & Chief Financial Officer | Sold under a preset trading plan | 2,000 | $329.62 | $659,240 |
| 2 July 2026 | GOLDMAN BARRY R SVP & General Counsel | Sold | 1,200 | $365.65 | $438,780 |
| 1 June 2026 | HOLCOM KAREN J SVP & Chief Financial Officer | Sold under a preset trading plan | 2,076 | $303.14 | $629,319 |
| 30 April 2026 | Leibman Maya Director | Bought | 200 | $288.83 | $57,766 |
| 8 April 2026 | O'Shaughnessy Laura Director | Bought | 1,000 | $282.98 | $282,980 |
| 28 January 2026 | HOLCOM KAREN J SVP & Chief Financial Officer | Sold under a preset trading plan | 4,974 | $309.23 | $2m |
| 28 October 2025 | GOLDMAN BARRY R SVP & General Counsel | Sold | 4,489 | $365.11 | $2m |
| 24 October 2025 | GOLDMAN BARRY R SVP & General Counsel | Sold | 4,687 | $368.01 | $2m |
From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.
Warning signs in its filings
Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.
None of the warning signs we check for were found.
We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.
We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 27 Oct 2025, plus the 10-Q filed 25 Jun 2026 and 7 later 8-Ks.
A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.
What could go wrong
Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.
Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.
What changed in the risks this year
Companies must list what could hurt them each year. These are the parts that changed since last year’s report.
Company operating systems, information systems, or devices have experienced, and may experience in the future, a failure or a compromise of security, which could adversely impact our operations as well as the effectiveness of internal controls over operations and financial reporting.
While prior compromises of our security have not had, in the aggregate, a material impact on the Company’s operations and financial condition, the Company expects events of this nature to continue as cyber-attacks are becoming more sophisticated and frequent. As artificial intelligence (“AI”) technologies advance, new and increasingly sophisticated attack methods are emerging, including fraud involving impersonation technologies or other forms of generative automation that enhance the scale and effectiveness of cyber threats. The techniques used in such attacks change rapidly, and certain vulnerabilities or attack methods may go undetected until after they are already deployed, potentially allowing them to persist within our systems for extended periods. The Company monitors its data, information technology, and personnel usage of Company systems to reduce these risks and continues to do so on an ongoing basis for any current or potential threats. Refer to Part I, Item 1C. Cybersecurity for further details.
Read more
The deep dive
Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.
- What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
- Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
- The three things that would make this a mistake
- Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
It moved up our list overnight. The deep dive tells you if the move is real.
Your first deep dive is free.
Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.