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

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Wednesday.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target 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. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 3.8 %

AYI traded down $12.09 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $309.11. 261,838 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 221,664. Acuity Brands has a 1-year low of $217.64 and a 1-year high of $345.30. The stock's 50-day moving average is $317.15 and its two-hundred day moving average is $297.44. The stock has a market cap of $9.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.76, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd were given a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands's previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.22%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $42,000. 98.21% of the stock is owned by 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.