Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Upgraded at StockNews.com

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) was upgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Tuesday.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on AYI. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, one has given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI traded up $0.83 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $303.16. The stock had a trading volume of 72,595 shares, compared to its average volume of 262,310. The stock has a market cap of $9.36 billion, a PE ratio of 22.56, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. Acuity Brands has a one year low of $200.27 and a one year high of $337.99. The business has a 50-day moving average of $315.43 and a 200-day moving average of $275.94.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.74 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,865,000 after purchasing an additional 12,479 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Acuity Brands by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 835,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $201,728,000 after buying an additional 20,537 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Acuity Brands by 3.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $152,085,000 after buying an additional 20,832 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $172,654,000 after acquiring an additional 34,032 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $106,201,000 after acquiring an additional 63,159 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

About Acuity Brands

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.