StockNews.com Upgrades Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) to Strong-Buy

by · The Cerbat Gem

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI – Free Report) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Wednesday morning.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on AYI. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $309.11 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $9.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.06 and a beta of 1.40. The company’s fifty day moving average is $317.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $296.85. 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 has a 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI – Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.72 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $42,000. 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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