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

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the six research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $341.40.

AYI has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $267.05 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.66, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $310.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $303.15. 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 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.72 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a $0.17 dividend. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.01%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $906,930,000 after purchasing an additional 16,407 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,120,979 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $327,471,000 after acquiring an additional 8,705 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $326,452,000 after acquiring an additional 103,162 shares during the period. Durable Capital Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 158.9% during the 4th quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $317,977,000 after purchasing an additional 668,048 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $266,865,000 after purchasing an additional 12,479 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.