Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Upgraded at Morgan Stanley

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) was upgraded by analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report issued on Tuesday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage presently has a $370.00 target price on the electronics maker’s stock, up from their prior target price of $304.00. Morgan Stanley’s target price indicates a potential upside of 20.81% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on AYI. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of 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 lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $306.27 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. The firm has a market cap of $9.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $337.99. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $315.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $281.62.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly 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. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.72 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares in the company, 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 hyperlink. 2.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $62,000. 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.