Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Cut to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on AYI. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI traded down $12.62 on Friday, reaching $284.51. 435,350 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 311,509. The stock has a market cap of $8.81 billion, a PE ratio of 20.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. Acuity Brands has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $316.80 and its 200-day moving average price is $301.10.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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 business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.72 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, February 3rd. This is a boost from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.01%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Durable Capital Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 158.9% in the 4th quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $317,977,000 after purchasing an additional 668,048 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at about $110,236,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 241.8% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 216,007 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $63,102,000 after purchasing an additional 152,807 shares during the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its position in Acuity Brands by 1,256.1% during the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 161,183 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $47,086,000 after buying an additional 149,297 shares during the last quarter. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,026,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.