Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Given Consensus Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by Brokerages

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the six ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $317.60.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on Acuity Brands in a report on Friday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,118,613 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $821,287,000 after purchasing an additional 14,071 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.7% during the first quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,139,857 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $300,181,000 after purchasing an additional 18,878 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $326,452,000 after acquiring an additional 103,162 shares in the last quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,098,485 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $289,286,000 after purchasing an additional 10,008 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.0% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 832,491 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $219,237,000 after acquiring an additional 24,225 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE:AYI traded down $0.53 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $263.72. 198,879 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 301,587. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $216.81 and a 52 week 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 firm has a market cap of $8.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.42, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. The business's fifty day simple moving average is $250.70 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $287.98.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm's revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.38 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th were issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.16%.

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.