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

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price target raised by Oppenheimer from $370.00 to $380.00 in a research note released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an outperform rating on the electronics maker’s stock.

AYI has been the topic of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Acuity Brands in a research note on Monday. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $304.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $328.20.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 3.0 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $312.99 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $9.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $315.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $280.14. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. Acuity Brands has a 52-week low of $214.32 and a 52-week high of $337.99.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value 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 represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 2.80% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in Acuity Brands by 517.6% in the third quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 105 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $33,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth about $35,000. Prospera Private Wealth LLC acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $62,000. Finally, Quarry LP grew its position in Acuity Brands by 229.7% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 244 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently 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.