Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Rating Lowered to Equal Weight at Wells Fargo & Company

Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has $260.00 target price on the electronics maker’s stock, down from their prior target price of $295.00.

AYI has been the subject of a number of other reports. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 18th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of AYI stock opened at $241.44 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $7.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.44. Acuity Brands has a one year low of $154.72 and a one year high of $272.74. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $254.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $244.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 1.96.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 27th. The electronics maker reported $4.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.50 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 14.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 18th will be given a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is 4.88%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Maya Leibman acquired 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $248.91 per share, for a total transaction of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at $49,782. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $248.91 per share, for a total transaction of $49,782.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,782. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter valued at about $27,000. Venturi Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 77.3% in the 4th quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 133 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. EdgeRock Capital LLC bought a new stake in Acuity Brands in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 5,666.7% in the 4th quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 173 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its stake in Acuity Brands by 85.7% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 221 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $50,000 after acquiring an additional 102 shares in the last quarter. 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.