Lots of Reasons to Invest in Acuity Brands (AYI)

Wedgewood Partners, an investment management company, released its “Focused SMID Cap Strategy” second quarter 2022 investor letter. A copy of the same can be downloaded here. In the second quarter, the fund returned -14.1% compared to a return of -17.0% for the Russell 2500 Index. Since inception, the fund returned 10.3% compared to 4.9% for its benchmark index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2022.

In the second quarter 2022 investor letter, Wedgewood Partners discussed stocks like Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI). Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) is a lighting and building management solutions provider. On September 28, 2022, Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) stock closed at $157.70 per share. One-month return of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) was -3.33% and its shares lost 9.04% of their value over the last 52 weeks. Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) has a market capitalization of $5.159 billion.

Here is what Wedgewood Partners specifically said about Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

“Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) detracted from portfolio performance despite posting continued impressive growth in the face of a particularly difficult inflationary environment. The Company’s fiscal third quarter results reflected +15% organic revenue growth, with +19% growth in operating profit. Acuity is managing inflationary pressure by constantly re-engineering its lighting and control products while also enacting more than a half-dozen price increases over the past two years. The Company’s backlog continues to build as commercial office, education and industrial facilities owners invest in much needed renovations. Management also repurchased nearly 5% of shares during the quarter and have bought back over 15% of shares over the past 2 years at prices well below recent levels.”

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Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. As per our database, 26 hedge fund portfolios held Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) at the end of the second quarter which was 30 in the previous quarter.

We discussed Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) in another article and shared Wedgewood Partners’ views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2022 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.