Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Receives $317.60 Average Price Target from Analysts

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the six brokerages that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $317.60.

AYI has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on Acuity Brands in a report on Friday, April 4th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.1 %

NYSE:AYI traded up $0.31 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $256.60. 189,449 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 303,194. The business has a 50-day moving average of $252.38 and a two-hundred day moving average of $294.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands has a 12-month low of $216.81 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.93 billion, a PE ratio of 18.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.38 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th were issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.27%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.16%.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 525.0% during the first quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 125 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. Hedge funds and other 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.