Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Reaches New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $339.34 and last traded at $337.10, with a volume of 9401 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $335.78.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AYI. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target 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, January 9th. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Robert W. Baird upped 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. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $341.40.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $315.63 and its 200-day moving average price is $285.31. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market cap of $10.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.68, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $3.72 EPS. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.7 earnings per share for the current 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 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 2.80% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the 3rd quarter valued at about $3,849,000. Hancock Whitney Corp increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 42.0% during the 3rd quarter. Hancock Whitney Corp now owns 6,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,784,000 after acquiring an additional 1,917 shares in the last quarter. Aigen Investment Management LP purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at about $484,000. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter valued at about $813,000. Finally, McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 15.0% during the 3rd quarter. McKinley Carter Wealth Services Inc. now owns 21,285 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $5,862,000 after acquiring an additional 2,773 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.