Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Cut to “Buy” at StockNews.com

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

AYI has been the subject of a number of other research reports. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $325.13 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $316.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $293.73. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a market capitalization of $10.07 billion, a PE ratio of 23.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands has a 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced 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 business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.72 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.01%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth approximately $33,000. Finally, V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth approximately $35,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.