Wells Fargo & Company Increases Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target to $289.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price objective increased by Wells Fargo & Company from $260.00 to $289.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 7.78% from the company’s current price.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on AYI. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $286.25.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $268.15 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $247.91 and a 200 day moving average of $252.88. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock has a market cap of $8.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $156.84 and a 12 month high of $275.05.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The firm had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.50 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% during the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 900.0% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in Acuity Brands by 4,214.3% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 302 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $73,000 after buying an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.