Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.10 EPS

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10, RTT News reports. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 20.49% and a net margin of 11.00%. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.72 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $304.72 on Wednesday. Acuity Brands has a one year low of $204.34 and a one year high of $337.99. The firm has a market cap of $9.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $314.79 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $279.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.72 and a quick ratio of 2.16.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total transaction of $1,561,600.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have issued reports on AYI. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $330.00 to $320.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.00.

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.