Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the company. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target 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. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock traded up $4.21 on Tuesday, reaching $329.51. The company's stock had a trading volume of 198,700 shares, compared to its average volume of 291,011. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The company has a market cap of $10.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.26, a PEG ratio of 2.07 and a beta of 1.40. The business's fifty day moving average price is $316.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $293.95. Acuity Brands has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business's revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.72 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth about $110,236,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 241.8% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 216,007 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $63,102,000 after acquiring an additional 152,807 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1,256.1% in the fourth quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 161,183 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $47,086,000 after acquiring an additional 149,297 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth about $31,026,000. Finally, Prudential Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 135.8% in the fourth quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 180,272 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $52,663,000 after acquiring an additional 103,818 shares in the last quarter. 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.