Oppenheimer Raises Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target to $370.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its target price raised by Oppenheimer from $315.00 to $370.00 in a research report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the electronics maker’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the company. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $289.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 3.0 %

Acuity Brands stock opened at $306.83 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.77. Acuity Brands has a fifty-two week low of $156.84 and a fifty-two week high of $307.24. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $252.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $254.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Investors of record on Friday, October 18th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.88%.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the first quarter worth about $27,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% in the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 170 shares during the period. EdgeRock Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 4,214.3% in the 2nd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 302 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $73,000 after acquiring an additional 295 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 14.7% in the 1st quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $128,000 after acquiring an additional 61 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.