Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) have been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the six ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $341.40.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on AYI shares. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $320.77 on Friday. 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 capitalization of $9.93 billion, a PE ratio of 23.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.08 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $317.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $296.68. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.72 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.21%. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.01%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Durable Capital Partners LP lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 158.9% in the 4th quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $317,977,000 after purchasing an additional 668,048 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $110,236,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 241.8% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 216,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $63,102,000 after purchasing an additional 152,807 shares during the period. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1,256.1% in the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 161,183 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $47,086,000 after purchasing an additional 149,297 shares during the period. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,026,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.