Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Now Covered by Morgan Stanley

by · The Markets Daily

Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI – Free Report) in a research note issued to investors on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm issued an equal weight rating and a $304.00 price target on the electronics maker’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $323.00.

Read Our Latest Report on AYI

Acuity Brands Trading Up 3.0 %

AYI opened at $312.99 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $9.66 billion, a PE ratio of 23.29, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The business has a 50 day moving average of $315.01 and a 200-day moving average of $279.91. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $214.32 and a 52 week high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI – Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.72 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AYI. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $86,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.3% in the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,717,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.2% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,050,000 after acquiring an additional 47 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.7% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 427 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $118,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares during the period. Finally, Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.6% in the third quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 352 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $97,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares during the period. 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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