Acuity Brands (AYI) Expected to Announce Quarterly Earnings on Thursday

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) will likely be issuing its quarterly earnings data before the market opens on Thursday, April 3rd. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of $3.67 per share and revenue of $1.03 billion for the quarter. Parties interested in participating in the company’s conference call can do so using this link.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.72 EPS. On average, analysts expect Acuity Brands to post $16 EPS for the current fiscal year and $17 EPS for the next fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AYI opened at $263.82 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.38 and a current ratio of 2.98. Acuity Brands has a 52 week low of $217.64 and a 52 week high of $345.30. The firm has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a PE ratio of 19.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $300.54 and its 200-day moving average is $304.50.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be issued a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s payout ratio is presently 5.01%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on AYI shares. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, March 1st. 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, March 27th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, William Blair upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.60.

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.