Brokerages Set Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Price Target at $289.25

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) has been given an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" by the four brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $289.25.

A number of equities analysts have commented on AYI shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Dianne S. Mills sold 6,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.11, for a total value of $1,350,660.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,554 shares in the company, valued at $1,925,590.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 1,900 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.01, for a total value of $429,419.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,611 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,946,172.11. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Dianne S. Mills sold 6,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.11, for a total value of $1,350,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,554 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,925,590.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,645 shares of company stock worth $3,811,128 over the last 90 days. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Aurora Investment Counsel lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 5,938 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $1,011,000 after buying an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,847 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $378,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 10,903 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $2,233,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 77.3% during the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SouthState Corp lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. SouthState Corp now owns 1,854 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $316,000 after buying an additional 60 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of AYI stock traded down $4.06 on Monday, hitting $267.83. The stock had a trading volume of 227,466 shares, compared to its average volume of 273,860. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $252.80 and a 200 day moving average price of $211.77. The company has a market cap of $8.25 billion, a PE ratio of 22.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.49. Acuity Brands has a one year low of $149.30 and a one year high of $272.74.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 9th. The electronics maker reported $3.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.23 by $0.49. The firm had revenue of $934.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $935.14 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 9.81%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.04 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 13.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.02%.

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.