Acuity Brands, Inc. (AYI) To Go Ex-Dividend on February 3rd

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.17 per share by the electronics maker on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 3rd. This is a positive change from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15.

Acuity Brands has increased its dividend payment by an average of 4.9% per year over the last three years. Acuity Brands has a payout ratio of 3.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Acuity Brands to earn $16.97 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 3.5%.

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.6 %

NYSE AYI opened at $335.02 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $315.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $286.03. The company has a market capitalization of $10.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AYI. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $341.40.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 2.80% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Acuity Brands Company Profile

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.