Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.35 EPS

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The electronics maker reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.35, MarketWatch Earnings reports. The company had revenue of $792.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $790.31 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 7.46% and a return on equity of 14.43%. The firm’s revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.13 EPS.

Shares of Acuity Brands stock traded down $5.27 during trading on Friday, reaching $115.99. 772,146 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 756,406. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.33 and a quick ratio of 1.81. Acuity Brands has a 1-year low of $67.46 and a 1-year high of $132.00. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $118.03 and a 200-day moving average price of $104.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.27 billion, a PE ratio of 18.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 1.52.

Get Acuity Brands alerts:

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 20th will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, January 19th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.45%. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 6.92%.

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Credit Suisse Group boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $134.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday. Cowen boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $122.00 to $133.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group assumed coverage on shares of Acuity Brands in a report on Tuesday, September 15th. They set a “sell” rating and a $91.00 target price on the stock. BidaskClub raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, December 28th. Finally, ValuEngine raised shares of Acuity Brands from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Acuity Brands currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $101.90.

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.

Further Reading: Limitations of analyzing profit margin

Receive News & Ratings for Acuity Brands Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Acuity Brands and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.