Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Hits New 12-Month High on Analyst Upgrade

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Robert W. Baird raised their price target on the stock from $236.00 to $286.00. Robert W. Baird currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Acuity Brands traded as high as $270.95 and last traded at $269.56, with a volume of 12727 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $267.84.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $200.00 to $236.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $215.00.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Dianne S. Mills sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.11, for a total value of $1,350,660.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,554 shares in the company, valued at $1,925,590.94. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, SVP Dianne S. Mills sold 6,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.11, for a total value of $1,350,660.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,554 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,925,590.94. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 1,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.01, for a total transaction of $429,419.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,611 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,946,172.11. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 17.2% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,103,793 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $187,987,000 after purchasing an additional 161,818 shares during the last quarter. Pathstone Family Office LLC increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 12.7% in the third quarter. Pathstone Family Office LLC now owns 6,936 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,181,000 after purchasing an additional 784 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at $414,000. Earnest Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 6.0% in the third quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 285,055 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $48,548,000 after purchasing an additional 16,042 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Genus Capital Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 15.3% in the third quarter. Genus Capital Management Inc. now owns 39,135 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $6,665,000 after purchasing an additional 5,205 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $8.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.99, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.49. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $247.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $205.56. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 2.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 9th. The electronics maker reported $3.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.23 by $0.49. The business had revenue of $934.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $935.14 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 9.56% and a return on equity of 21.43%. Acuity Brands’s revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.04 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 13.72 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 5th were paid a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. This is an increase from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 2nd. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is presently 5.13%.

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.