Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target Increased to $370.00 by Analysts at Oppenheimer

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price objective upped by Oppenheimer from $315.00 to $370.00 in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the electronics maker’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $289.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.3 %

AYI stock opened at $300.21 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $250.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $253.78. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $156.84 and a 12 month high of $303.04. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.74 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 38.1% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 51,890 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $13,913,000 after acquiring an additional 14,329 shares during the last quarter. Quantedge Capital Pte Ltd bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $737,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 148.4% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 4,397 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,166,000 after purchasing an additional 2,627 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 8.0% in the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $6,965,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 15.0% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 42,027 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $11,281,000 after buying an additional 5,474 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.