Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Given New $318.00 Price Target at Robert W. Baird

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price objective raised by investment analysts at Robert W. Baird from $280.00 to $318.00 in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 6.23% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $289.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.75.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI stock opened at $299.35 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $249.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $253.45. Acuity Brands has a 12-month low of $156.84 and a 12-month high of $303.04. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The company has a market cap of $9.21 billion, a PE ratio of 24.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.85 by $0.45. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.74 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 14.26 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the first quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% during the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the second quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 4,214.3% during the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 302 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 14.7% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $128,000 after buying an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

About Acuity Brands

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.