Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Lowered to “Buy” Rating by StockNews.com

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

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

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $296.94 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $316.80 and a 200-day moving average of $300.61.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.23%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.