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

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

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded down $1.07 during trading on Friday, reaching $241.44. 480,222 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 314,936. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.44 billion, a PE ratio of 19.63, a P/E/G 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 50 day moving average price of $254.46 and a 200-day moving average price of $244.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 2.77 and a quick ratio of 1.96.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 18th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following 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 is available through this link. In other Acuity Brands news, Director Maya Leibman purchased 200 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 200 shares in the company, valued at approximately $49,782. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 Analysts Forecast Growth

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