Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Sets New 52-Week High – Still a Buy?

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $305.00 and last traded at $303.53, with a volume of 29829 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $298.03.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.2 %

The company has a market capitalization of $9.37 billion, a PE ratio of 24.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.77. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $251.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $254.09.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.74 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AYI. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 3.5% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $386,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 10,903 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,233,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 5,999 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,148,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 14.7% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $128,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,764 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $909,000 after buying an additional 61 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

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.