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

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average rating of "Moderate Buy" from the six research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $317.60.

AYI has been the topic of several research reports. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on shares of Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted 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.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Ritholtz Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 5,527 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,456,000 after purchasing an additional 117 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 27.5% during the 1st quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 7,161 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,886,000 after acquiring an additional 1,546 shares during the last quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 3.1% during the first quarter. NorthCrest Asset Manangement LLC now owns 7,468 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,967,000 after purchasing an additional 223 shares during the period. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 7.2% in the first quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 24,243 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $6,384,000 after purchasing an additional 1,623 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.1% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 863 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $227,000 after purchasing an additional 93 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded up $0.78 during trading on Friday, reaching $229.15. The company's stock had a trading volume of 74,172 shares, compared to its average volume of 295,161. The firm has a market cap of $7.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The business's fifty day moving average price is $275.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $301.08. 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 one year low of $216.81 and a one year high of $345.30.

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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. Acuity Brands's revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.38 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.30%. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.16%.

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.