Brokerages Set Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Target Price at $341.40

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) have been given a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” by the six ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $341.40.

AYI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.2 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $328.11 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $316.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $288.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.16, a PEG ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands has a 1-year low of $217.64 and a 1-year high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.72 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.21%. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date is Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 4.42%.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 517.6% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $40,000. 98.21% of the stock is 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.