Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Stock Price Down 6.5% – Time to Sell?

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) fell 6.5% on Monday . The stock traded as low as $302.70 and last traded at $310.50. 113,456 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 67% from the average session volume of 346,702 shares. The stock had previously closed at $332.22.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 4.2 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.43, a PEG ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $317.06 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $290.09.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.42%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AYI. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings 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 worth $29,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $35,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.