William Blair Increases Earnings Estimates for Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) – Research analysts at William Blair boosted their Q1 2026 earnings estimates for shares of Acuity Brands in a research report issued on Thursday, March 27th. William Blair analyst R. Merkel now anticipates that the electronics maker will earn $4.18 per share for the quarter, up from their previous forecast of $4.01. William Blair has a “Outperform” rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Acuity Brands’ current full-year earnings is $15.86 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Acuity Brands’ Q2 2026 earnings at $4.05 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $4.84 EPS and FY2026 earnings at $18.11 EPS.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on AYI. Robert W. Baird dropped their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $340.00 to $310.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 27th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 1st. Oppenheimer boosted their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 9th. Morgan Stanley upgraded Acuity Brands from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $304.00 to $370.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Acuity Brands from $336.00 to $290.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Three 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 company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $330.60.

Acuity Brands Price Performance

Shares of AYI stock opened at $263.82 on Monday. Acuity Brands has a twelve month low of $217.64 and a twelve month high of $345.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $300.54 and a 200 day simple moving average of $304.50. The company has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.41.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The business had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $955.60 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $3.72 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 18th will be paid a $0.17 dividend. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.01%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Acuity Brands

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of AYI. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 13.1% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 2,504 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $690,000 after purchasing an additional 290 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC increased its holdings in Acuity Brands by 92.6% in the third quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 6,566 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $1,808,000 after purchasing an additional 3,157 shares in the last quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec acquired a new position in Acuity Brands in the third quarter valued at approximately $3,273,000. Atom Investors LP bought a new position in shares of Acuity Brands during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,710,000. Finally, Benjamin Edwards Inc. grew its position in shares of Acuity Brands by 33.3% during the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 1,754 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $483,000 after buying an additional 438 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.21% of the company’s stock.

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.