Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Strong-Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Tuesday morning.

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $200.00 to $236.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $215.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $268.73 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $149.30 and a 52 week high of $270.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $249.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $206.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.99, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.49.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 9th. The electronics maker reported $3.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.23 by $0.49. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 9.56% and a return on equity of 21.43%. The firm had revenue of $934.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $935.14 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.04 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 13.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.22%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.13%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 1,900 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $226.01, for a total transaction of $429,419.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,611 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,946,172.11. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, SVP Dianne S. Mills sold 6,000 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.11, for a total transaction of $1,350,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,554 shares in the company, valued at $1,925,590.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 1,900 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.01, for a total transaction of $429,419.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,611 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,946,172.11. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 77.3% during the fourth quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% in the fourth 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. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 85.7% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 221 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 102 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.