Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Given New $318.00 Price Target at Robert W. Baird

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its target price raised by Robert W. Baird from $280.00 to $318.00 in a report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Robert W. Baird currently has a neutral rating on the electronics maker’s stock.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on AYI. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $289.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 3.0 %

NYSE:AYI opened at $306.83 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $252.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $254.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.95, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.77. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $156.84 and a 1 year high of $307.24.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.74 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 14.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 18th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of AYI. US Bancorp DE raised its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 8.9% during the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,739 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $766,000 after buying an additional 304 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 246.0% in the fourth quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 9,900 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,027,000 after buying an additional 7,039 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands in the fourth quarter worth $2,043,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 43.2% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 14,135 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,895,000 after purchasing an additional 4,263 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. increased its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 10,903 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,233,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.