Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.33 EPS

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The electronics maker reported $4.15 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33, Briefing.com reports. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The firm had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.52 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.50 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

NYSE:AYI traded down $1.07 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $241.44. 480,222 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 314,936. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $254.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $244.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.44 billion, a PE ratio of 19.63, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.44. Acuity Brands has a 1-year low of $154.72 and a 1-year high of $272.74. The company has a current ratio of 2.77, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 18th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the subject of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Oppenheimer raised their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $279.00.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Maya Leibman purchased 200 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $248.91 per share, for a total transaction of $49,782.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 200 shares in the company, valued at $49,782. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.