Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Oppenheimer Analyst Says

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its target price lifted by investment analysts at Oppenheimer from $370.00 to $380.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “outperform” rating on the electronics maker’s stock. Oppenheimer’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 21.41% from the company’s previous close.

AYI has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Acuity Brands in a research report on Monday. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $304.00 price objective for the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com raised Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $328.20.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 3.0 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded up $9.12 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $312.99. 552,569 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 503,714. The stock has a market cap of $9.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a 50 day moving average of $315.01 and a two-hundred day moving average of $279.91. 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 fifty-two week low of $214.32 and a fifty-two week high of $337.99.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $3.72 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 187.8% in the 2nd quarter. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. now owns 330,331 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $79,755,000 after purchasing an additional 215,547 shares in the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 353.1% in the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 173,683 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $41,934,000 after buying an additional 135,350 shares in the last quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth $31,026,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Acuity Brands by 35.7% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 407,164 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $98,306,000 after acquiring an additional 107,171 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 16.7% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 442,007 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $106,201,000 after buying an additional 63,159 shares during the period. 98.21% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.