Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

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

AYI has been the subject of several other reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of 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 boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI opened at $303.16 on Tuesday. Acuity Brands has a twelve month low of $200.27 and a twelve month high of $337.99. The firm has a market cap of $9.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.56, a PEG 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. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $315.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $275.94.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.74 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.20%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 2.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $3,849,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 24.7% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 95,551 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $26,314,000 after buying an additional 18,919 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at $83,000. World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at $31,026,000. Finally, Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth $33,000. 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.