Analysts Set Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Target Price at $289.25

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) has been assigned an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the four research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $289.25.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on AYI shares. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI opened at $254.41 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $7.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.27, a P/E/G ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.47. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $257.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $222.42. Acuity Brands has a fifty-two week low of $149.30 and a fifty-two week 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.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.23. The firm had revenue of $905.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $897.01 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 9.81%. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 14.48 EPS for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 16th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.24%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 5.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Maya Leibman acquired 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were bought at an average price of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the purchase, the director now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,782. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value 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 approximately $5,320,062.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 2,709 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $461,000 after purchasing an additional 128 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.3% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 32,859 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $5,596,000 after buying an additional 3,590 shares during the period. Bailard Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth approximately $430,000. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth approximately $305,000. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 14.0% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 33,707 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $5,741,000 after acquiring an additional 4,140 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is 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.