Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Rating Lowered to Buy at StockNews.com

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Friday.

AYI has been the subject of a number of other reports. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Acuity Brands in a report on Monday. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $304.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $328.20.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 3.0 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $312.99 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $315.26 and its 200-day moving average is $280.14. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $214.32 and a 12 month high of $337.99. The firm has a market cap of $9.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,865,000 after acquiring an additional 12,479 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 2.5% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 835,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $201,728,000 after purchasing an additional 20,537 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $152,085,000 after purchasing an additional 20,832 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $172,654,000 after buying an additional 34,032 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.7% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $106,201,000 after buying an additional 63,159 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

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.