Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) have been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the five research firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $324.00.

AYI has been the subject of several analyst reports. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI traded up $7.34 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $299.47. 30,783 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 261,165. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $314.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $277.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $200.27 and a 52 week high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.74 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of AYI. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% during the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 88 shares in the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $35,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $62,000. Finally, Quarry LP lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 229.7% in the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 244 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.