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

by · The Cerbat Gem

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI – Get Free Report) was downgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the stock. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Robert W. Baird cut their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $324.60.

Check Out Our Latest Stock Analysis on AYI

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

AYI stock traded down $24.11 during trading on Friday, hitting $233.15. 1,524,952 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 286,290. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The company has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a PE ratio of 17.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $294.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $303.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.38 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Ballentine Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.9% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,210,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 16.3% in the 4th 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 last quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 13.1% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 398 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $116,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.2% during the 4th quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 951 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $278,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

About Acuity Brands

(Get Free Report)

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.

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