Acuity (NYSE:AYI) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Wall Street Zen

by · The Markets Daily

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Acuity (NYSE:AYI – Free Report) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Friday morning.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Acuity from $335.00 to $365.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Acuity from $285.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Acuity from $315.00 to $335.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $340.60.

Get Our Latest Report on AYI

Acuity Price Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $303.86 on Friday. Acuity has a one year low of $216.81 and a one year high of $345.30. The company has a market cap of $9.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.94, a P/E/G ratio of 1.92 and a beta of 1.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $263.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $282.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 1.99 and a quick ratio of 1.38.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI – Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 26th. The electronics maker reported $5.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.44 by $0.68. Acuity had a net margin of 9.63% and a return on equity of 20.35%. The business had revenue of $1.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $4.15 EPS. Acuity’s quarterly revenue was up 21.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Acuity will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 18th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.22%. Acuity’s payout ratio is presently 5.16%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State of Alaska Department of Revenue grew its position in Acuity by 3.0% during the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 3,592 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $945,000 after buying an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. Swiss National Bank grew its holdings in shares of Acuity by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 60,500 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $17,674,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA grew its holdings in shares of Acuity by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 4,187 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,223,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of Acuity by 45.3% during the 1st quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $66,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in Acuity by 42.8% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 38,625 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $11,284,000 after buying an additional 11,583 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Company Profile

(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.

Featured Stories