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

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) have been given an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the six ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $341.40.

AYI has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target 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.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $264.17 on Tuesday. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.18 billion, a PE ratio of 19.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $307.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $303.18.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.26%. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.01%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 192.8% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 5,615 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,640,000 after purchasing an additional 3,697 shares in the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 7,245 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,116,000 after purchasing an additional 121 shares in the last quarter. Lansforsakringar Fondforvaltning AB publ purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $8,601,000. Menard Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $79,000. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 63.0% during the 4th quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,221 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $357,000 after buying an additional 472 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is 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.