UPDATE: Piper Jaffray Downgrades Acuity Brands to Neutral on Flattish Lighting Growth

Piper Jaffray lowered its rating on Acuity Brands AYI from Overweight to Neutral with a reiterated $66 price target. Piper Jaffray noted, "We downgrade AYI to Neutral from OW given its current premium valuation, and our proprietary checks which suggest lighting sales likely see flattish trends for the remainder of 2012. While we believe AYI continues to execute well, and can likely continue to outperform overall lighting sales growth due to its market leadership and strong channel presence, our latest checks leave us cautious on our +8% y/y growth estimate for FY13. Furthermore, Acuity recently reached its historical peak PE multiple of 19x before retreating to 17x suggesting growth prospects for FY13 are likely already priced into the stock." Acuity Brands closed at $63.13 on Wednesday.