Research Analysts’ Recent Ratings Updates for Acuity Brands (AYI)

A number of firms have modified their ratings and price targets on shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE: AYI) recently:

• 4/5/2024 – Acuity Brands was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating.
• 4/4/2024 – Acuity Brands had its price target raised by analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $260.00 to $295.00. They now have an “overweight” rating on the stock.
• 4/4/2024 – Acuity Brands had its price target raised by analysts at Oppenheimer Holdings Inc. from $250.00 to $315.00. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock.
• 4/4/2024 – Acuity Brands had its price target raised by analysts at The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. from $227.00 to $261.00. They now have a “neutral” rating on the stock.
• 3/26/2024 – Acuity Brands was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating.
• 3/26/2024 – Acuity Brands had its price target raised by analysts at Robert W. Baird from $236.00 to $286.00. They now have a “neutral” rating on the stock.
• 3/12/2024 – Acuity Brands was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating.
• 2/22/2024 – Acuity Brands was downgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating.
• 2/14/2024 – Acuity Brands was upgraded by analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $266.01 on Thursday. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12-month low of $149.30 and a 12-month high of $272.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.19 billion, a PE ratio of 22.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.88 and a beta of 1.49. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $253.82 and a 200 day moving average price of $212.86.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 9th. The electronics maker reported $3.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.23 by $0.49. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 9.81% and a return on equity of 21.22%. The firm had revenue of $934.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $935.14 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.04 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 5.02%.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Dianne S. Mills sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.11, for a total transaction of $1,350,660.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,554 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,925,590.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,365,821 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $573,233,000 after purchasing an additional 17,459 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,313,389 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $627,225,000 after purchasing an additional 60,541 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.9% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,982,396 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $564,568,000 after purchasing an additional 25,598 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 19.3% during the first quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,208,990 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $228,862,000 after purchasing an additional 195,515 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Acuity Brands by 620.3% in the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,197,721 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $198,355,000 after acquiring an additional 1,031,432 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.