Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Stock Rating Upgraded by William Blair

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) was upgraded by William Blair from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report issued on Thursday, Marketbeat reports.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI stock opened at $292.13 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. The firm has a market cap of $9.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $314.77 and its 200 day moving average is $277.94. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $200.27 and a 52 week high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.74 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 2.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $266,865,000 after acquiring an additional 12,479 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in Acuity Brands by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 835,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $201,728,000 after buying an additional 20,537 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 20,832 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $172,654,000 after acquiring an additional 34,032 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $106,201,000 after purchasing an additional 63,159 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.