Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Trading Down 3.8% on Analyst Downgrade

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) dropped 3.8% on Tuesday after Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on the stock from $286.00 to $280.00. Robert W. Baird currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Acuity Brands traded as low as $248.99 and last traded at $249.28. Approximately 115,182 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 54% from the average daily volume of 251,040 shares. The stock had previously closed at $259.23.

AYI has been the topic of several other research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research 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 report on Thursday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $287.75.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, Director Maya Leibman purchased 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $248.91 per share, for a total transaction of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at $49,782. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Acuity Brands news, Director Maya Leibman purchased 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $248.91 per share, for a total transaction of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at $49,782. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at $5,320,062.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AYI. HighTower Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $320,000. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 3.3% during the third quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 21,886 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,707,000 after purchasing an additional 690 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $743,000. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $414,000. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 35.7% during the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 54,664 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $9,310,000 after purchasing an additional 14,392 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $7.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.91, a PEG ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.44. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $256.42 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $241.82. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.23. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 9.81%. The company had revenue of $905.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $897.01 million. As a group, analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th were issued a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.24%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.02%.

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.