Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Sets New 1-Year High at $273.36

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Thursday . The company traded as high as $273.36 and last traded at $271.03, with a volume of 17631 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $267.91.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $295.00 to $260.00 in a report on Friday, June 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 0.1 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.15. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $247.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $252.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The firm had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.50 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 18th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 38.1% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 51,890 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $13,913,000 after purchasing an additional 14,329 shares during the period. Quantedge Capital Pte Ltd bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $737,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised 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 last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp raised its position 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 worth $6,965,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 25.8% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 47,372 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $9,703,000 after purchasing an additional 9,729 shares in the last quarter. 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.