Acuity Brands, Inc. (AYI) To Go Ex-Dividend on July 18th

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, June 26th, NASDAQ reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 18th will be given a dividend of 0.15 per share by the electronics maker on Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 18th.

Acuity Brands has a dividend payout ratio of 3.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Acuity Brands to earn $15.80 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 3.8%.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands stock opened at $242.56 on Friday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $254.57 and a 200 day moving average of $243.80. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $154.72 and a 12 month high of $272.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 1.96.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.23. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 9.81%. The company had revenue of $905.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $897.01 million. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Acuity Brands will post 14.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,782. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Acuity Brands news, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $248.91 per share, with a total value of $49,782.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $49,782. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 4th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company cut Acuity Brands from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $295.00 to $260.00 in a report on Friday. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. 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. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $279.00.

About Acuity Brands

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.