Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Shares Down 6.5% - Time to Sell?

Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) fell 6.5% during mid-day trading on Monday . The company traded as low as $302.70 and last traded at $310.50. 113,456 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 67% from the average session volume of 346,702 shares. The stock had previously closed at $332.22.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the company. StockNews.com cut Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and raised their target price for the stock 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 research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 1.4 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $10.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.11 and a beta of 1.40. The business has a 50-day moving average of $316.75 and a 200-day moving average of $291.18. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $955.60 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.72 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.76 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.21%. This is a boost from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio is 4.42%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AYI. Creative Planning lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,764 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $909,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 81.6% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 8,234 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $1,988,000 after purchasing an additional 3,700 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.2% in the third quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 3,624 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $998,000 after purchasing an additional 111 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.0% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 711 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $196,000 after purchasing an additional 76 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 517.6% during the 3rd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 88 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.