Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $341.40.

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price 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. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $332.38 on Monday. Acuity Brands has a 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market cap of $10.29 billion, a PE ratio of 24.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $317.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $289.87.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.72 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 15.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 4.42%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. 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.