Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) was downgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday.

AYI has been the subject of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $324.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $233.15 on Friday. Acuity Brands has a 1 year low of $217.64 and a 1 year high of $345.30. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $294.09 and its 200 day moving average is $304.02. The stock has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.17, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $3.38 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of AYI. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $906,930,000 after purchasing an additional 16,407 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Acuity Brands by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,120,979 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $327,471,000 after buying an additional 8,705 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 10.2% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $326,452,000 after buying an additional 103,162 shares during the last quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 158.9% in the fourth quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $317,977,000 after buying an additional 668,048 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 969,043 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $266,865,000 after acquiring an additional 12,479 shares during the last quarter. 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.