Acuity Brands - AYI Stock Forecast, Price & News

Acuity Brands, Inc. provides lighting and building management solutions in North America and internationally. The company operates through 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 Lithonia Lighting, Holophane, Peerless, Gotham, Mark Architectural Lighting, Winona Lighting, Juno, Indy, Aculux, Healthcare Lighting, Hydrel, American Electric Lighting, Sunoptics, eldoLED, nLight, Sensor Switch, IOTA, A-Light, Cyclone, Eureka, Lumniaire LED, Luminis, Dark to Light, and RELOC Wiring Solutions brands. This segment serves electrical distributors, retail home improvement centers, electric utilities, national accounts, digital retailers, lighting showrooms, and energy service companies. The ISG segment offers building management systems and location-aware applications under the Distech Controls, Atrius, and Rockpile Ventures brands. This segment serves system integrators, as well as retail stores, airports, and enterprise campuses. Acuity Brands, Inc. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AYI has been the subject of a number of research reports. Cowen decreased their price target on Acuity Brands to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, July 4th. William Blair lowered shares of Acuity Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, June 23rd. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, July 1st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $200.00 to $181.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Acuity Brands in a report on Tuesday, July 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $210.57.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

AYI Stock traded up $2.67 on Tuesday, reaching $185.82. The company's stock had a trading volume of 242,642 shares, compared to its average volume of 292,583. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $167.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $175.29. The company has a market capitalization of $6.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.86 and a quick ratio of 1.19. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $142.71 and a 52 week high of $224.59.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 30th. The electronics maker reported $3.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.80 by $0.50. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 9.43% and a return on equity of 19.77%. The business had revenue of $1.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $988.15 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $2.62 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 17.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 11.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 15th were issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 14th. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.01%.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 906 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.47, for a total value of $160,787.82. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 4,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $842,805.03. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Laura O'shaughnessy purchased 575 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 28th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $174.54 per share, for a total transaction of $100,360.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now owns 1,479 shares in the company, valued at approximately $258,144.66. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 906 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.47, for a total transaction of $160,787.82. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,749 shares in the company, valued at $842,805.03. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.