Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Reaches New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) shares reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $339.34 and last traded at $337.10, with a volume of 9401 shares. The stock had previously closed at $335.78.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AYI has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price 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. StockNews.com cut shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.2 %

The firm has a market capitalization of $10.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.68, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.40. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $315.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $285.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.72 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ballentine Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 911 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 4,142 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,210,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.3% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 293 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $86,000 after purchasing an additional 41 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.3% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,498 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $3,717,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.2% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,811 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,050,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity Brands Company Profile

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.