Wells Fargo & Company Lowers Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target to $320.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price target lowered by stock analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $330.00 to $320.00 in a research note issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 2.24% from the stock’s current price.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Acuity Brands in a research report on Monday. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $304.00 price target on the stock. Finally, William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $323.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 3.0 %

AYI opened at $312.99 on Tuesday. Acuity Brands has a fifty-two week low of $214.32 and a fifty-two week high of $337.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. The company has a market capitalization of $9.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $315.01 and a 200-day moving average of $279.91.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.72 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

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

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. UMB Bank n.a. grew 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 worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the last quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth about $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth about $35,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth about $62,000. Finally, Quarry LP grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 229.7% during the third quarter. Quarry LP now owns 244 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.