Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target Raised to $305.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its target price hoisted by Wells Fargo & Company from $289.00 to $305.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the electronics maker’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $306.77 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $252.99 and a 200-day moving average price of $254.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.44 billion, a PE ratio of 24.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Acuity Brands has a 12-month low of $156.84 and a 12-month high of $307.24.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The company 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 posted $3.74 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 14.26 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 4.88%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its position in Acuity Brands by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 3,624 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $998,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,332,000. Truist Financial Corp grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 81.6% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 8,234 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,988,000 after buying an additional 3,700 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,764 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $909,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Susquehanna Fundamental Investments LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $387,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

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.