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 Stock Performance

NYSE:AYI traded up $0.94 on Thursday, reaching $186.80. 99,319 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 290,671. 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 firm has a market cap of $6.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.58. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $142.71 and a 52 week high of $224.59. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $167.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $175.44.

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

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 15th were given a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, July 14th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.28%. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 5.01%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on AYI. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, July 9th. Credit Suisse Group lowered their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $241.00 to $211.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 27th. Cowen decreased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands to $225.00 in a report on Monday, July 4th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $200.00 to $181.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, June 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $210.00 price objective on shares of Acuity Brands in a report on Tuesday, July 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $210.57.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 906 shares of the firm'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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 4,749 shares in the company, valued at $842,805.03. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Laura O'shaughnessy bought 575 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 28th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $174.54 per share, with a total value of $100,360.50. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 1,479 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $258,144.66. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 906 shares of the firm'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 completion of the sale, 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 owned by company insiders.