Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Receives $341.40 Average PT from Brokerages

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) has earned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $341.40.

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 3.8 %

Acuity Brands stock opened at $309.11 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. Acuity Brands has a one year low of $217.64 and a one year high of $345.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.57 billion, a PE ratio of 22.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s fifty day moving average is $317.15 and its 200 day moving average is $298.48.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $3,849,000. Hancock Whitney Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 42.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,784,000 after purchasing an additional 1,917 shares during the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $484,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $813,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $462,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.