Acuity (NYSE:AYI) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

Acuity (NYSE:AYI) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The electronics maker reported $5.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.44 by $0.68, RTT News reports. Acuity had a return on equity of 19.73% and a net margin of 10.53%. The firm had revenue of $1.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.15 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $4.15 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.7% compared to the same quarter last year.

Acuity Stock Up 5.9%

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $304.39 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $9.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.08, a PEG ratio of 1.82 and a beta of 1.60. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $261.72 and its 200-day simple moving average is $282.82. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40. Acuity has a fifty-two week low of $216.81 and a fifty-two week high of $345.30.

Acuity Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 18th will be given a dividend of $0.17 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 18th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. Acuity’s payout ratio is currently 5.16%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

An institutional investor recently raised its position in Acuity stock. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Acuity, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) by 17.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 76,543 shares of the electronics maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,144 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. owned approximately 0.25% of Acuity worth $20,158,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on AYI shares. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Acuity from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Acuity from $275.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 17th. Robert W. Baird set a $315.00 target price on Acuity and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on Acuity in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.60.

Acuity 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.