Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.17

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 27th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a dividend of 0.17 per share by the electronics maker on Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th.

Acuity Brands has increased its dividend by an average of 4.9% annually over the last three years. Acuity Brands has a payout ratio of 3.5% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Acuity Brands to earn $17.42 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.68 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 3.9%.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.7 %

AYI traded up $1.85 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $263.82. 520,456 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 278,447. The stock has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.43, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. Acuity Brands has a 1-year low of $217.64 and a 1-year high of $345.30. The stock's 50-day moving average is $300.54 and its two-hundred day moving average is $304.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $3.87 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The company's quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $3.72 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Acuity Brands will post 15.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AYI shares. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of Acuity Brands from $340.00 to $310.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. William Blair raised shares of Acuity Brands from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 1st. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $330.60.

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.