Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Given New $318.00 Price Target at Robert W. Baird

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its target price upped by stock analysts at Robert W. Baird from $280.00 to $318.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 6.23% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $289.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $295.75.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 8.7 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $299.35 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.21 billion, a PE ratio of 24.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $249.68 and a 200-day moving average of $253.45. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $156.84 and a 52 week high of $303.04. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.85 by $0.45. The company had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $3.74 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 14.26 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter valued at $27,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% during the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 4,214.3% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 302 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $73,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 14.7% during the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $128,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by 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.