Robert W. Baird Cuts Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target to $295.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price objective trimmed by Robert W. Baird from $310.00 to $295.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the electronics maker’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Oppenheimer increased their target price on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 28th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $324.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Acuity Brands stock opened at $233.15 on Friday. Acuity Brands has a fifty-two week low of $217.64 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30. The company has a market capitalization of $7.22 billion, a PE ratio of 17.17, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $294.09 and a 200-day moving average price of $304.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.67 by $0.06. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. The business had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.38 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 5.16%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth approximately $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $40,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter worth $42,000. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.