Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target Raised to $261.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) had its target price lifted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $227.00 to $261.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the electronics maker's stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $265.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI traded down $0.13 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $264.56. 374,574 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 274,030. The company's 50-day moving average is $251.05 and its two-hundred day moving average is $209.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a current ratio of 2.45 and a quick ratio of 1.85. The company has a market capitalization of $8.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.63, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 1.49. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $149.30 and a 1 year high of $272.74.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 9th. The electronics maker reported $3.72 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.49. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 9.56% and a return on equity of 21.43%. The company had revenue of $934.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $935.14 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.04 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 13.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.23%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 1,900 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.01, for a total value of $429,419.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,611 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,946,172.11. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 1,900 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.01, for a total value of $429,419.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,611 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,946,172.11. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Dianne S. Mills sold 6,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.11, for a total transaction of $1,350,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,554 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,925,590.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AYI. Raymond James & Associates raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 6.2% during the first quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 20,688 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $3,916,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 3.0% in the first quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 12,834 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $2,429,000 after buying an additional 379 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.9% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,982,396 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $564,568,000 after buying an additional 25,598 shares in the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the first quarter valued at $1,395,000. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 9.1% in the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 19,747 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $3,850,000 after buying an additional 1,647 shares in the last quarter. 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.