Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Stock Rating Lowered by StockNews.com

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) was downgraded by equities researchers at StockNews.com from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Monday.

AYI has been the topic of several other reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective 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. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $289.00 to $305.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $324.00.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI stock traded up $0.14 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $317.88. The stock had a trading volume of 191,158 shares, compared to its average volume of 255,994. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $315.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $274.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.39. 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 52 week low of $199.47 and a 52 week high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 1st. The electronics maker reported $4.30 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.90 by $0.40. The business had revenue of $1.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The firm’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.74 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The stock was 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. The trade was a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. State Street Corp grew its position in Acuity Brands by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,865,000 after purchasing an additional 12,479 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.5% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 835,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $201,728,000 after acquiring an additional 20,537 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $152,085,000 after acquiring an additional 20,832 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $172,654,000 after purchasing an additional 34,032 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 16.7% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $106,201,000 after purchasing an additional 63,159 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.