Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target Raised to $336.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price target upped by investment analysts at Wells Fargo & Company from $320.00 to $336.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 7.35% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on AYI. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Acuity Brands in a research note on Monday. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $304.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $326.20.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 3.0 %

AYI stock traded up $9.12 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $312.99. 552,569 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 503,714. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a current ratio of 2.72. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $315.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $279.91. The company has a market cap of $9.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands has a 1-year low of $214.32 and a 1-year high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth approximately $3,849,000. Hancock Whitney Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 42.0% in the 3rd quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,784,000 after purchasing an additional 1,917 shares during the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth $484,000. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 15.0% in the 3rd quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 21,285 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $5,862,000 after buying an additional 2,773 shares during the period. Finally, Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at $813,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.