Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Reaches New 1-Year Low – Here’s Why

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) hit a new 52-week low on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $216.81 and last traded at $219.00, with a volume of 97771 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $223.31.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 price target on shares of Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 9.2 %

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $287.95 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $303.08. The company has a market capitalization of $7.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.93, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.16%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 56.0% in the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 2,723 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $753,000 after buying an additional 978 shares during the period. Stifel Financial Corp boosted its position in Acuity Brands by 12.3% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 7,642 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $2,105,000 after purchasing an additional 835 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 1.3% during 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 during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $279,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC increased its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 213.4% during the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 5,040 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,388,000 after purchasing an additional 3,432 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

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.