Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Lowered to Buy Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Monday.

AYI has been the topic of several other reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $317.88 on Monday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $315.54 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $274.16. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $199.47 and a 12 month high of $337.99. The company has a market capitalization of $9.81 billion, a PE ratio of 23.65, a P/E/G 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 (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.74 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.19%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.46%.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,849,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 24.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 95,551 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $26,314,000 after acquiring an additional 18,919 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $83,000. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,026,000. Finally, Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. 98.21% of the stock is 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.