Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target Raised to $370.00 at Oppenheimer

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its target price upped by stock analysts at Oppenheimer from $315.00 to $370.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. Oppenheimer’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 25.38% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on AYI. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $289.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $309.50.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded down $4.24 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $295.11. 14,664 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 253,313. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.77. The company has a market capitalization of $9.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.16, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $249.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $253.45. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $156.84 and a 12 month high of $303.04.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for 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. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Blair William & Co. IL grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $386,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 10,903 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,233,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 5,999 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,148,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 14.7% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 1.6% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,764 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $909,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands 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.