Oppenheimer Raises Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target to $370.00

by · The Markets Daily

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI – Free Report) had its price target upped by Oppenheimer from $315.00 to $370.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the electronics maker’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also commented on AYI. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $289.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $324.00.

Check Out Our Latest Research Report on Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $306.77 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $9.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands has a 52-week low of $156.84 and a 52-week high of $307.24. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $252.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $254.39. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.74 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.20%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 4.88%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 38.1% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 51,890 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $13,913,000 after acquiring an additional 14,329 shares in the last quarter. Quantedge Capital Pte Ltd purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $737,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 148.4% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 4,397 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,166,000 after purchasing an additional 2,627 shares in the last quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 8.0% during the 2nd quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $6,965,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 15.0% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 42,027 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $11,281,000 after buying an additional 5,474 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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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