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

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $341.40.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on AYI shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $299.19 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.26 billion, a PE ratio of 22.03, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands has a 52-week low of $217.64 and a 52-week high of $345.30. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $316.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $299.65. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

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

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.01%.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $266,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,210,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $86,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,717,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 13.1% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 398 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $116,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by 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.