Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Reaches New 1-Year Low – What’s Next?

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on AYI shares. Oppenheimer lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective 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, April 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, April 4th. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.41 billion, a PE ratio of 17.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.43. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $282.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $302.24.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.16%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AYI. ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter worth $29,000. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Westside Investment Management Inc. bought a new stake in Acuity Brands during the third quarter worth about $33,000. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $40,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 4th quarter valued at about $42,000. 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.