Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.10 EPS

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

Acuity Brands Stock Down 0.9 %

AYI opened at $304.72 on Wednesday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $314.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $279.68. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $204.34 and a 52 week high of $337.99. The company has a quick ratio of 2.16, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a market cap of $9.40 billion, a PE ratio of 22.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective 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. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Acuity Brands in a research report on Monday. They issued an “equal weight” rating and a $304.00 price target for the company. William Blair raised Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Oppenheimer raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $323.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 2.80% of the company’s stock.

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.