StockNews.com Lowers Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) to Buy

StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Wednesday morning.

AYI has been the topic of several other research reports. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, June 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI stock opened at $241.57 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $254.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $244.16. Acuity Brands has a 52-week low of $154.72 and a 52-week high of $272.74. The company has a market capitalization of $7.44 billion, a PE ratio of 20.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.23. The company had revenue of $905.90 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $897.01 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 9.81% and a return on equity of 21.22%. Analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 14.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 18th will be issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Acuity Brands news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Maya Leibman acquired 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,782. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AYI. SG Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter worth $5,699,000. EULAV Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the first quarter valued at about $9,943,000. Cetera Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the first quarter worth about $376,000. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 291.2% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 6,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,752,000 after acquiring an additional 4,854 shares during the period. Finally, Atria Investments Inc bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,706,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently 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.