Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) have received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six analysts that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $341.40.

AYI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.7 %

Acuity Brands stock opened at $332.38 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $10.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $316.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $289.16.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.72 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a $0.17 dividend. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.01%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $40,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.