Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Receives Average Recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" from the six analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $317.60.

Several research firms recently weighed in on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird lowered their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd.

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Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter worth $40,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at $42,000. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded down $2.57 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $236.30. 455,142 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 294,747. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $216.81 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $279.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $302.04. The company has a market capitalization of $7.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.38 earnings per share. Acuity Brands's quarterly revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.16%.

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.