Wells Fargo & Company Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Stock Price

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price target trimmed by Wells Fargo & Company from $290.00 to $275.00 in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the electronics maker’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on AYI. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $324.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI stock opened at $233.15 on Friday. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.22 billion, a PE ratio of 17.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $294.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $304.28.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.38 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.16%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AYI. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 13.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 2,504 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $690,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares in the last quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 92.6% during the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 6,566 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,808,000 after purchasing an additional 3,157 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 33.3% during the third quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,754 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $483,000 after purchasing an additional 438 shares in the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 56.0% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 2,723 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $753,000 after purchasing an additional 978 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 229.7% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 244 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.