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 $2.80 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $182.15. 5,746 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 262,669. The company has a market capitalization of $5.96 billion, a PE ratio of 17.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.58. The business has a fifty day moving average of $167.44 and a 200 day moving average of $175.74. Acuity Brands has a 1-year low of $142.71 and a 1-year high of $224.59. The company has a quick ratio of 1.19, a current ratio of 1.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $988.15 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $2.62 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 17.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 11.52 earnings per share for the current year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $188.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, July 1st. William Blair lowered Acuity Brands from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a report on Thursday, June 23rd. Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands to $225.00 in a research note on Monday, July 4th. Oppenheimer reiterated an "outperform" rating and set a $210.00 target price on shares of Acuity Brands in a research note on Tuesday, July 5th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, July 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given 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 an average price target of $210.57.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 906 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated 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 owns 4,749 shares in the company, valued at approximately $842,805.03. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 906 shares of Acuity Brands stock in a transaction on Friday, June 3rd. The stock was 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 directly owns 4,749 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $842,805.03. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 5,438 shares of the company's 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 17,138 shares in the company, 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 corporate insiders.