Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.39 EPS

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) issued its earnings results on Tuesday. The electronics maker reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.73 by $0.39, MarketWatch Earnings reports. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 7.64% and a return on equity of 14.50%.

Shares of NYSE:AYI traded up $0.86 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $165.86. The company had a trading volume of 10,702 shares, compared to its average volume of 509,582. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.77 and a current ratio of 2.31. Acuity Brands has a 1-year low of $70.55 and a 1-year high of $169.41. The firm has a market cap of $5.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $131.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $115.42.

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The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 16th will be given a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 15th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.31%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.92%.

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AYI. Credit Suisse Group lifted their price target on Acuity Brands from $152.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on Acuity Brands from $140.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. William Blair upgraded Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Roth Capital reissued a “sell” rating on shares of Acuity Brands in a research report on Friday, January 8th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised Acuity Brands from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the company from $155.00 to $190.00 in a research report on Thursday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $133.77.

Acuity Brands Company Profile

Acuity Brands, Inc provides lighting and building management solutions and services for commercial, institutional, industrial, infrastructure, and residential applications in North America and internationally. The company offers lighting and control products and solutions, including recessed, surface, and suspended lighting; down, decorative, emergency and exit, track, day, special-use, street and roadway, parking garage, tunnel, underwater, area pedestrian, flood, decorative site, and landscape lighting; occupancy sensors; photo controls; relay panels; architectural dimming panels; and integrated lighting controls systems.

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