Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) PT Raised to $303.00 at The Goldman Sachs Group

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price objective raised by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $266.00 to $303.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 1.68% from the company’s current price.

AYI has been the subject of a number of other reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

AYI stock opened at $298.00 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $251.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $254.09. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Acuity Brands has a 12-month low of $156.84 and a 12-month high of $303.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.17 billion, a PE ratio of 24.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.74 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 3.5% during the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $386,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 10,903 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,233,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 5,999 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,148,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 14.7% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Creative Planning raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,764 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $909,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares during the period. 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.