Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Cut to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report published on Monday morning.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $300.47 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. The stock has a market cap of $9.27 billion, a PE ratio of 22.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $199.47 and a 1 year high of $337.99. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $315.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $274.71.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.74 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 4.46%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $3,717,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.2% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,050,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew its position in Acuity Brands by 12.7% during the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 427 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $118,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Venturi Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 16.6% during the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 352 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $97,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.8% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,541 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $613,000 after purchasing an additional 69 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.