Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Stock Rating Upgraded by Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research report released on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports. Morgan Stanley currently has $370.00 price objective on the electronics maker’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $304.00.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on AYI. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their price target 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. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Wells Fargo & Company raised 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of AYI stock opened at $331.40 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $315.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $282.49. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $337.99. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.40, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its 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. The business had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.72 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 2.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $266,865,000 after buying an additional 12,479 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $152,085,000 after purchasing an additional 20,832 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $172,654,000 after purchasing an additional 34,032 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $106,201,000 after acquiring an additional 63,159 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 437,745 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $120,551,000 after purchasing an additional 30,581 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.