Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) PT Raised to $289.00 at Wells Fargo & Company

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price objective hoisted by stock analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $260.00 to $289.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s target price suggests a potential upside of 5.64% from the company’s current price.

AYI has been the topic of several other research reports. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $286.25.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.7 %

Acuity Brands stock traded up $1.88 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $273.58. 42,141 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 248,585. Acuity Brands has a 52-week low of $156.84 and a 52-week high of $275.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 1.41. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $247.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $252.64. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The business had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.50 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AYI. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 366.2% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $83,430,000 after purchasing an additional 271,485 shares during the period. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 187.8% during the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 330,331 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $79,755,000 after acquiring an additional 215,547 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 353.1% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $41,934,000 after acquiring an additional 135,350 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 35.7% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $98,306,000 after acquiring an additional 107,171 shares during the period. Finally, Vision One Management Partners LP bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $21,901,000. Institutional investors 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.