Wells Fargo & Company Boosts Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target to $336.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price target boosted by Wells Fargo & Company from $320.00 to $336.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the electronics maker’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on AYI. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Acuity Brands in a research report on Monday, January 6th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $304.00 target price for the company. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $328.20.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 2.7 %

AYI stock opened at $305.19 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $9.42 billion, a PE ratio of 22.71, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $337.99. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $315.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $280.89. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business’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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AYI. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $266,865,000 after purchasing an additional 12,479 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 835,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $201,728,000 after buying an additional 20,537 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $152,085,000 after acquiring an additional 20,832 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $172,654,000 after acquiring an additional 34,032 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $106,201,000 after acquiring an additional 63,159 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

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.