Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Rating Increased to Outperform at William Blair

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) was upgraded by equities researchers at William Blair from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note issued on Thursday, Marketbeat.com reports.

AYI has been the topic of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. 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 report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $301.60 on Thursday. Acuity Brands has a one year low of $201.88 and a one year high of $337.99. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $314.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $278.38. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. The stock has a market cap of $9.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.74 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

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

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in Acuity Brands by 366.2% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 345,628 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $83,430,000 after purchasing an additional 271,485 shares during the last quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 187.8% in the second quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 330,331 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $79,755,000 after buying an additional 215,547 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in Acuity Brands by 353.1% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $41,934,000 after acquiring an additional 135,350 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $31,026,000. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Acuity Brands by 35.7% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $98,306,000 after acquiring an additional 107,171 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.