Robert W. Baird Lowers Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target to $310.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price target decreased by equities researchers at Robert W. Baird from $340.00 to $310.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “neutral” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. Robert W. Baird’s price objective points to a potential upside of 14.36% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer upped 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. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $339.80.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of AYI stock opened at $271.07 on Thursday. Acuity Brands has a 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $304.50 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $303.82. The firm has a market cap of $8.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AYI. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $3,849,000. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $232,000. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 213.4% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 5,040 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,388,000 after acquiring an additional 3,432 shares during the period. Smith Group Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $19,703,000. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 7,642 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,105,000 after purchasing an additional 835 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Acuity Brands Company Profile

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.