Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Given Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" by Analysts

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the six research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $341.40.

Several research firms recently commented on AYI. StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE AYI traded down $3.08 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $306.17. The company had a trading volume of 207,077 shares, compared to its average volume of 302,425. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Acuity Brands has a 1-year low of $217.64 and a 1-year high of $345.30. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $316.92 and a 200 day moving average of $299.03.

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

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This is an increase from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.01%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sunbelt Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 2,923.1% during the fourth quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 393 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $116,000 after buying an additional 380 shares during the period. Ashford Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $13,789,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.3% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 154,163 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $45,036,000 after purchasing an additional 493 shares during the period. Vident Advisory LLC increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 17,414 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $5,087,000 after purchasing an additional 1,605 shares during the last quarter. Finally, WBI Investments LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $616,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.