Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) have been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $324.00.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on AYI shares. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their target price on 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 lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 2.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AYI. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at $35,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth about $62,000. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 229.7% during the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 244 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of AYI stock traded up $7.34 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $299.47. The company had a trading volume of 30,783 shares, compared to its average volume of 261,165. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $314.77 and a 200-day simple moving average of $277.94. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $200.27 and a 12 month high of $337.99. The company has a market cap of $9.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.16.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.74 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.