Acuity Brands Company Profile (NYSE:AYI)

Acuity Brands trades on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "AYI."

Acuity Brands declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 18th will be paid a dividend of $0.13 per share on Tuesday, August 1st. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.28%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 14th. View Acuity Brands' Dividend History.

Acuity Brands declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Friday, June 30th 2017, which authorizes the company to buyback 2,000,000 outstanding shares, according to EventVestor. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Acuity Brands Inc (NYSE:AYI) announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June, 29th. The company reported $2.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.12. The firm earned $891.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $878.66 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 9.04% and a return on equity of 19.89%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.06 EPS. View Acuity Brands' Earnings History.

Acuity Brands is scheduled to release their next quarterly earnings announcement on Wednesday, October, 4th 2017. View Earnings Estimates for Acuity Brands.

15 brokerages have issued 12 month target prices for Acuity Brands' stock. Their forecasts range from $150.00 to $306.00. On average, they expect Acuity Brands' share price to reach $220.64 in the next year. View Analyst Ratings for Acuity Brands.

Here are some recent quotes from research analysts about Acuity Brands stock:

• 1. According to Zacks Investment Research, "Acuity Brands’ third-quarter fiscal 2017 earnings and revenues both surpassed analysts’ expectations. This marks the first quarter of beats after four straight quarters of earnings and revenue misses.  Net sales increased 5% year over year mainly driven by a 6% increase in volumes.  Sales volumes improved across most key product categories and sales channels. Also, Acuity Brands’ shares outperformed the Zacks categorized Building Products - Lighting Fixtures industry in the last one month. Estimates for the current quarter moved 2.3% up in the last seven days while that for the current year rose 0.3%.  In spite of achieving record third-quarter net sales and earnings, the company’s profits were adversely impacted by higher-than-normal supply chain costs, including increased quality expenses and inbound freight charges." (7/6/2017)
• 2. Deutsche Bank AG analysts commented, "AYI shares have been under pressure on concerns over near term risk to earnings. Although we lower our FY17/18 growth projections somewhat in order to reflect the moderating growth trends in LED lighting and slightly longer than anticipated slowdown driven by near term policy uncertainty, we maintain our Buy as our analysis and channel checks suggest that the FQ2 results would generally come in line with consensus and street ests for the remaining quarters also reflect slowdown in growth expectations. We believe share price multiple would depend on whether mgmt comments suggest acceleration in both small and larger project segments." (3/14/2017)

Some companies that are related to Acuity Brands include D.R. Horton (DHI), Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. (CX), Martin Marietta Materials (MLM), Lennar Corporation (LEN), Masco Corporation (MAS), Lennar Corporation (LEN.B), NVR (NVR), Rollins (ROL), United Rentals (URI), PulteGroup (PHM), Owens Corning (OC), Lennox International (LII), RPM International (RPM), Toll Brothers (TOL), Jacobs Engineering Group (JEC), James Hardie Industries PLC. (JHX), ServiceMaster Global Holdings (SERV) and Thor Industries (THO).

Acuity Brands' management team includes the folowing people:

• Vernon J. Nagel, Chairman of the Board, President, Chief Executive Officer
• Richard K. Reece, Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President
• Mark A. Black, Executive Vice President
• Peter Crane Browning, Lead Independent Director
• Mary A. Winston CPA, Director
• W. Patrick Battle, Independent Director
• James H. Hance Jr., Independent Director
• Gordon D. Harnett, Independent Director

Acuity Brands' stock is owned by many different of institutional and retail investors. Top institutional shareholders include Vanguard Group Inc. (9.98%), BlackRock Inc. (9.89%), State Street Corp (4.49%), Standard Life Investments LTD (4.14%), Atlanta Capital Management Co. L L C (3.28%) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (3.25%). Company insiders that own Acuity Brands stock include Mark A Black, Peter C Browning, Ray M Robinson, Richard K Reece, Vernon J Nagel and W Patrick Battle. View Institutional Ownership Trends for Acuity Brands.

Acuity Brands' stock was sold by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including FMR LLC, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo & Company MN, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership, American Century Companies Inc., State Street Corp, Geneva Advisors LLC and Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc.. Company insiders that have sold Acuity Brands stock in the last year include Mark A Black, Peter C Browning and Ray M Robinson. View Insider Buying and Selling for Acuity Brands.

Acuity Brands' stock was purchased by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including BlackRock Inc., Standard Life Investments LTD, Atlanta Capital Management Co. L L C, State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D, NN Investment Partners Holdings N.V., Parametric Portfolio Associates LLC, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and New York State Common Retirement Fund. View Insider Buying and Selling for Acuity Brands.

Shares of Acuity Brands can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages include Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Scottrade, Fidelity and Charles Schwab.

One share of Acuity Brands stock can currently be purchased for approximately $183.38.