Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) PT Raised to $303.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its target price boosted by equities research analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group from $266.00 to $303.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. The Goldman Sachs Group’s price objective points to a potential upside of 1.68% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 27th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.7 %

AYI stock opened at $298.00 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 2.15. Acuity Brands has a 1-year low of $156.84 and a 1-year high of $303.04. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $251.82 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $254.09. The company has a market capitalization of $9.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.23, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.74 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 14.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB raised its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 38.1% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 51,890 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $13,913,000 after acquiring an additional 14,329 shares during the period. Quantedge Capital Pte Ltd bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $737,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp raised its position in Acuity Brands by 148.4% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp now owns 4,397 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,166,000 after purchasing an additional 2,627 shares during the period. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 8.0% in the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund Corp now owns 28,846 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $6,965,000 after purchasing an additional 2,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 15.0% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 42,027 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $11,281,000 after buying an additional 5,474 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently 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.