Wells Fargo & Company Lowers Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target to $290.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price target dropped by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $336.00 to $290.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 9.86% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on AYI. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. 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 report on Tuesday, January 14th. Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $340.00 to $310.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $330.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI traded down $3.84 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $263.98. 48,759 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 266,526. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The company has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $303.24 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $303.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $42,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently 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.