Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Receives $395.17 Consensus Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) have received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have given a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $395.1667.

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Acuity from $380.00 to $405.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on shares of Acuity from $312.00 to $356.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Acuity from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Acuity from $335.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Acuity from $365.00 to $425.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 2nd.

Acuity Trading Up 1.5%

AYI stock opened at $365.35 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.95. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $347.21 and its 200 day simple moving average is $303.57. Acuity has a 52 week low of $216.81 and a 52 week high of $375.67. The company has a market capitalization of $11.18 billion, a PE ratio of 29.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.64.

Acuity Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, November 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 17th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.2%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 17th. Acuity’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.43%.

Insider Transactions at Acuity

In other Acuity news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 4,489 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $365.11, for a total transaction of $1,638,978.79. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 6,056 shares in the company, valued at $2,211,106.16. This represents a 42.57% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 2.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 12.1% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 863 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $227,000 after acquiring an additional 93 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 37.5% in the first quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 935 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $246,000 after acquiring an additional 255 shares during the last quarter. Smith Group Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 9.2% in the first quarter. Smith Group Asset Management LLC now owns 73,644 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $19,394,000 after acquiring an additional 6,198 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 0.7% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 70,553 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $18,580,000 after acquiring an additional 470 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Impax Asset Management Group plc lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity by 3.5% in the first quarter. Impax Asset Management Group plc now owns 3,658 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $963,000 after acquiring an additional 125 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Acuity 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.