Wells Fargo & Company Raises Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target to $289.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its target price raised by Wells Fargo & Company from $260.00 to $289.00 in a research note released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the electronics maker’s stock.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on AYI. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $286.25.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $270.08 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $8.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $248.15 and its 200-day simple moving average is $253.00. Acuity Brands has a twelve month low of $156.84 and a twelve month high of $275.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.77.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.52 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The company’s revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.50 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 4.88%.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter worth $27,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% in the fourth quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the second quarter worth about $41,000. Assetmark Inc. raised its holdings in Acuity Brands by 900.0% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 250 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in Acuity Brands by 4,214.3% during the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 302 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $73,000 after purchasing an additional 295 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.