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

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) issued its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $951.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.00% and a return on equity of 20.49%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $3.72 EPS.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 3.0 %

Acuity Brands stock traded up $9.12 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $312.99. The stock had a trading volume of 552,569 shares, compared to its average volume of 503,714. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $315.01 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $279.91. The company has a current ratio of 2.72, a quick ratio of 2.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.66 billion, a PE ratio of 23.29, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.40. Acuity Brands has a 12 month low of $214.32 and a 12 month high of $337.99.

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 that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,438 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $2,573,590. This trade represents a 37.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Company insiders own 2.80% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer raised their price objective on shares of Acuity Brands from $315.00 to $370.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley began coverage on Acuity Brands in a report on Monday. They set an "equal weight" rating and a $304.00 price target for the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Acuity Brands from $330.00 to $320.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $323.00.

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.