Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Given New $336.00 Price Target at Wells Fargo & Company

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) had its price target boosted by Wells Fargo & Company from $320.00 to $336.00 in a research note released on Thursday morning,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the electronics maker’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Oppenheimer lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $328.20.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

AYI opened at $312.99 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $315.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $280.14. The firm has a market cap of $9.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 firm’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.72 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 15.51 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands 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 value of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 12,479 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 835,521 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $201,728,000 after acquiring an additional 20,537 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 629,893 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $152,085,000 after acquiring an additional 20,832 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 5.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 626,810 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $172,654,000 after purchasing an additional 34,032 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 16.7% during the second 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

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.