Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Sets New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) hit a new 52-week high on Tuesday . The stock traded as high as $312.20 and last traded at $311.71, with a volume of 77192 shares. The stock had previously closed at $308.87.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AYI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer boosted their target price 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. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $9.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.16. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $265.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $256.79.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.74 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 23.4% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 99,573 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $20,396,000 after acquiring an additional 18,881 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its position in Acuity Brands by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,149,459 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $235,444,000 after purchasing an additional 45,666 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter worth about $7,061,000. Mather Group LLC. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter worth about $248,000. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.1% during the first quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 3,760 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,010,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

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.