Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Downgraded by StockNews.com to Buy

StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Friday morning.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $328.20.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI opened at $305.19 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $9.42 billion, a PE ratio of 22.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $315.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $280.59. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $337.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.16.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,110 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $581,000 after purchasing an additional 192 shares during the last quarter. Private Client Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $1,377,000. Diversified Trust Co lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 83.1% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 5,119 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,495,000 after buying an additional 2,323 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 5.7% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 49,449 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $14,602,000 after buying an additional 2,677 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.