Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Lowered to Buy at 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 Tuesday.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and reduced their target price for the company from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Friday, June 28th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $251.59 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $7.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.45, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $242.54 and its 200 day moving average is $251.44. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Acuity Brands has a 52-week low of $156.49 and a 52-week high of $272.74.

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

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 18th were issued a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 4.88%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter worth about $27,000. EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% during the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 44.4% during the 1st quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 192 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 59 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 900.0% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.