Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The firm had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $996.52 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.97% and a net margin of 10.12%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.50 EPS.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of AYI traded down $1.07 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $241.44. The stock had a trading volume of 480,222 shares, compared to its average volume of 314,936. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 2.77. The firm has a market cap of $7.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.63, a P/E/G ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.44. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $254.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $244.88. Acuity Brands has a 12-month low of $154.72 and a 12-month high of $272.74.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

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 given a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.88%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,782. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Maya Leibman acquired 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,782. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the firm’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at $5,320,062.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

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.