Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Rating Increased to Outperform at William Blair

William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) from a market perform rating to an outperform rating in a report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on AYI. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $298.52 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $314.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $278.08. The stock has a market cap of $9.21 billion, a PE ratio of 22.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $200.27 and a 12 month high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.74 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AYI. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $266,865,000 after purchasing an additional 12,479 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 835,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $201,728,000 after buying an additional 20,537 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $152,085,000 after acquiring an additional 20,832 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $172,654,000 after acquiring an additional 34,032 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 16.7% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $106,201,000 after acquiring an additional 63,159 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.