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

Key Points

• Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) has received an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from nine ratings firms, with two holding and seven issuing buy ratings.
• The company recently reported a quarterly dividend of $0.17 per share, equating to an annualized yield of 0.2%.
• Acuity's stock has a 1-year price range from $216.81 to $375.67, and its market capitalization stands at $10.82 billion.

Shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the nine ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $395.1667.

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of Acuity in a research note on Saturday, September 27th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of Acuity from $330.00 to $390.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Acuity from $312.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Acuity from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, June 27th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Acuity from $380.00 to $435.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday.

Acuity Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $353.00 on Friday. Acuity has a 1 year low of $216.81 and a 1 year high of $375.67. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $328.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $288.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.95, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $10.82 billion, a PE ratio of 28.17, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.64.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 17th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. Acuity's dividend payout ratio is 5.43%.

Institutional Trading of Acuity

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,118,613 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $821,287,000 after acquiring an additional 14,071 shares during the period. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 50,220.2% during the 2nd quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 2,268,433 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $676,764,000 after acquiring an additional 2,263,925 shares during the period. Durable Capital Partners LP lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 13.8% during the 2nd quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,249,899 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $372,895,000 after acquiring an additional 151,414 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,139,857 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $300,181,000 after acquiring an additional 18,878 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 6.4% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 840,508 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $250,759,000 after acquiring an additional 50,491 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Acuity

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.

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