Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Given New $275.00 Price Target at Wells Fargo & Company

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) had its price objective dropped by stock analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $290.00 to $275.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has an "equal weight" rating on the electronics maker's stock. Wells Fargo & Company's price objective would suggest a potential upside of 15.32% from the stock's current price.

Other equities research analysts have also issued reports about the company. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. 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. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Four investment 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, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI traded up $15.15 during trading on Friday, reaching $238.46. The stock had a trading volume of 172,594 shares, compared to its average volume of 289,305. Acuity Brands has a 1-year low of $212.09 and a 1-year high of $345.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $287.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $303.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. Acuity Brands's revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.38 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in AYI. Durable Capital Partners LP boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 158.9% during the fourth 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 bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at $110,236,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 29,415.7% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 227,271 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $59,852,000 after acquiring an additional 226,501 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 241.8% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 216,007 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $63,102,000 after acquiring an additional 152,807 shares during the period. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1,256.1% in the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 161,183 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $47,086,000 after purchasing an additional 149,297 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.