Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) PT Raised to $305.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price target raised by Wells Fargo & Company from $289.00 to $305.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target would suggest a potential upside of 1.84% from the stock’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $313.50.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE AYI traded up $0.15 on Wednesday, hitting $299.50. 78,548 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 253,649. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $156.84 and a 52 week high of $303.04. The stock has a market cap of $9.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $249.68 and a 200-day moving average of $253.45.

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.5% during the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 1,435 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $386,000 after acquiring an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 10,903 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,233,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. Aurora Investment Counsel increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel now owns 5,999 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,148,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 14.7% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 475 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.6% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 3,764 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $909,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

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.