Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.33 EPS

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) posted its earnings results on Thursday. The electronics maker reported $4.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.82 by $0.33, Briefing.com reports. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 10.12% and a return on equity of 20.97%. The company had revenue of $968.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $996.52 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $3.50 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was down 3.2% on a year-over-year basis.

Acuity Brands Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of AYI stock traded down $1.07 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $241.44. 480,222 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 314,936. The stock has a market cap of $7.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.63, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a quick ratio of 1.96, a current ratio of 2.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. Acuity Brands has a fifty-two week low of $154.72 and a fifty-two week high of $272.74. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $254.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $244.88.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 18th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 18th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 4.88%.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In related news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Maya Leibman purchased 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $248.91 per share, for a total transaction of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now directly owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,782. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total transaction of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 20,287 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird reduced their price target on Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $295.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $279.00.

Acuity Brands Company Profile

Acuity Brands, Inc provides lighting, lighting controls, building management system, location-aware applications in the United States and internationally. The company operates in 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 A-Light, Aculux, American Electric Lighting, Cyclone, Dark to Light, eldoLED, Eureka, Gotham, Healthcare Lighting, Holophane, Hydrel, Indy, IOTA, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Luminaire LED, Luminis, Mark Architectural Lighting, nLight, OPTOTRONIC, Peerless, RELOCWiring Solutions, and Sensor Switch.