Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report issued on Thursday morning.

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

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $298.52 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.21 billion, a PE ratio of 22.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $200.27 and a 52 week high of $337.99. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $314.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $278.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth approximately $35,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at $62,000. Finally, Quarry LP grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 229.7% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 244 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Acuity Brands

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.