Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Price Target Raised to $380.00

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price target increased by equities researchers at Oppenheimer from $370.00 to $380.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “outperform” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. Oppenheimer’s price objective points to a potential upside of 21.41% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $328.20.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 3.0 %

AYI stock traded up $9.12 during trading on Thursday, hitting $312.99. The company had a trading volume of 552,569 shares, compared to its average volume of 503,714. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Acuity Brands has a one year low of $214.32 and a one year high of $337.99. The business has a 50-day moving average of $315.01 and a 200-day moving average of $279.91. The stock has a market cap of $9.66 billion, a PE ratio of 23.29, a PEG ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $3.72 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 187.8% in the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 330,331 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $79,755,000 after purchasing an additional 215,547 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 353.1% in the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $41,934,000 after buying an additional 135,350 shares during the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at about $31,026,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 35.7% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $98,306,000 after buying an additional 107,171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 16.7% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $106,201,000 after buying an additional 63,159 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently 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.