Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target Cut to $310.00 by Analysts at Robert W. Baird

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its target price reduced by Robert W. Baird from $340.00 to $310.00 in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Robert W. Baird currently has a neutral rating on the electronics maker’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on AYI. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $339.80.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.1 %

AYI stock opened at $268.39 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $303.24 and a 200 day moving average of $303.57. The firm has a market cap of $8.31 billion, a PE ratio of 19.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve 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.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.01%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.