Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the six analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $341.40.

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on AYI shares. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target 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.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Victory Capital Management Inc. increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 32.8% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 27,042 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $7,447,000 after purchasing an additional 6,679 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 9,973 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,746,000 after buying an additional 125 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 26.8% in the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,669 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $735,000 after buying an additional 564 shares during the last quarter. Quest Partners LLC raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 9,473 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,609,000 after acquiring an additional 85 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Caprock Group LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at $251,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

AYI opened at $275.18 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands has a 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $306.52 and a two-hundred day moving average of $303.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.52 billion, a PE ratio of 20.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

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.