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

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 business had revenue of $968.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $996.52 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $3.50 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE AYI traded down $1.07 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $241.44. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 480,222 shares, compared to its average volume of 314,936. The stock has a market cap of $7.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.44. 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 has a one year low of $154.72 and a one year high of $272.74. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $254.46 and its 200-day simple moving average is $244.88.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Shareholders 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 is Thursday, July 18th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 4.88%.

Insider Activity

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price 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 boosted their target price 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 target price 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands 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.