StockNews.com Upgrades Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) to Strong-Buy

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday.

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $200.00 to $236.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $215.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI opened at $267.59 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.45, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $247.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $205.56. Acuity Brands has a 1-year low of $149.30 and a 1-year high of $270.95. The company has a market cap of $8.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.89, a PEG ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 1.49.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 9th. The electronics maker reported $3.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.49. The business had revenue of $934.70 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $935.14 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.43% and a net margin of 9.56%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.04 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 13.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 1,900 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.01, for a total value of $429,419.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,611 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,946,172.11. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 1,900 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.01, for a total value of $429,419.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,611 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,946,172.11. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Dianne S. Mills sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.11, for a total transaction of $1,350,660.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,554 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,925,590.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,365,821 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $573,233,000 after acquiring an additional 17,459 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 1.9% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,313,389 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $627,225,000 after purchasing an additional 60,541 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,982,396 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $564,568,000 after buying an additional 25,598 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 19.3% during the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,208,990 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $228,862,000 after purchasing an additional 195,515 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 620.3% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 1,197,721 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $198,355,000 after buying an additional 1,031,432 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

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.