Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Buy”

StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Friday.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on AYI. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Acuity Brands in a research report on Monday, January 6th. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $304.00 target price for the company. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $328.20.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $305.19 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $337.99. The firm has a market cap of $9.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.71, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $315.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $281.17.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.72 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 2,110 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $581,000 after buying an additional 192 shares during the period. Private Client Services LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth about $1,377,000. Diversified Trust Co grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 83.1% during the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 5,119 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,495,000 after buying an additional 2,323 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB raised its position in Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 49,449 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $14,602,000 after buying an additional 2,677 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by 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.