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

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report issued on Friday.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on AYI. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Morgan Stanley raised 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. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 4th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 6.8 %

AYI stock traded up $15.15 during trading on Friday, reaching $238.46. 172,594 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 289,305. The firm's 50 day moving average is $287.95 and its 200 day moving average is $303.08. The firm has a market cap of $7.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. 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 twelve month low of $212.09 and a twelve month high of $345.30.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.38 earnings per share. Acuity Brands's revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

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