Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Lowered 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 report released on Friday.

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

Acuity Brands Stock Down 9.4 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $233.15 on Friday. Acuity Brands has a 12-month low of $217.64 and a 12-month high of $345.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $294.09 and its two-hundred day moving average is $304.28. The company has a market capitalization of $7.22 billion, a PE ratio of 17.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter worth about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,000. 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.