Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Given Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the six brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $323.60.

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Wall Street Zen raised Acuity from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price objective on shares of Acuity in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Acuity and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Acuity from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 17th.

Acuity Price Performance

Acuity stock opened at $286.95 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $260.21 and its 200 day moving average is $282.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a current ratio of 1.95 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The firm has a market cap of $8.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.60. Acuity has a one year low of $216.81 and a one year high of $345.30.

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. Acuity had a net margin of 10.53% and a return on equity of 19.73%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.38 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Acuity will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Durable Capital Partners LP lifted its stake in Acuity by 158.9% in the fourth quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $317,977,000 after purchasing an additional 668,048 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Acuity during the fourth quarter valued at about $110,236,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity by 29,415.7% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 227,271 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $59,852,000 after buying an additional 226,501 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity by 103.0% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 312,904 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $82,403,000 after buying an additional 158,741 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity by 34.6% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 613,217 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $157,910,000 after buying an additional 157,790 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Acuity

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.