Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Downgraded to Hold Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Friday.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on AYI. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $324.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI opened at $233.15 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $217.64 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $294.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $303.75.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.38 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a $0.17 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.29%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.01%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $906,930,000 after purchasing an additional 16,407 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,120,979 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $327,471,000 after buying an additional 8,705 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $326,452,000 after acquiring an additional 103,162 shares during the period. Durable Capital Partners LP grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 158.9% in the fourth quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $317,977,000 after acquiring an additional 668,048 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp increased its position in Acuity Brands by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,865,000 after acquiring an additional 12,479 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Acuity Brands

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.