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.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Acuity Brands stock traded up $0.41 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $179.38. 222,612 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 296,686. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.86 and a quick ratio of 1.19. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $167.37 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $175.73. The company has a market capitalization of $5.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.28, a PEG ratio of 1.55 and a beta of 1.58. Acuity Brands has a 12-month low of $142.71 and a 12-month high of $224.59.

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

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 15th were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 14th. Acuity Brands's payout ratio is 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AYI has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Credit Suisse Group reduced their price target on Acuity Brands from $241.00 to $211.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, June 27th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Acuity Brands from $200.00 to $181.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 29th. William Blair cut Acuity Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, June 23rd. Cowen reduced their price objective on Acuity Brands to $225.00 in a report on Monday, July 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $210.57.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Laura O'shaughnessy purchased 575 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 28th. The stock was bought at an average price of $174.54 per share, with a total value of $100,360.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 1,479 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $258,144.66. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Acuity Brands news, Director Laura O'shaughnessy acquired 575 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 28th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $174.54 per share, with a total value of $100,360.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,479 shares in the company, valued at $258,144.66. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 5,438 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.20, for a total value of $838,539.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 17,138 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,642,679.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.20% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.