Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Issues FY24 Earnings Guidance

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of $14.75-$15.50 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of $14.69. Acuity Brands also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 14.750-15.500 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AYI. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Thursday. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Two 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $289.25.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of NYSE AYI opened at $272.12 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.85, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $251.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $209.67. The firm has a market cap of $8.39 billion, a PE ratio of 22.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.49. Acuity Brands has a twelve month low of $149.30 and a twelve month high of $272.74.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 9th. The electronics maker reported $3.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.49. The business had revenue of $934.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $935.14 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 9.81%. Acuity Brands’s revenue was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.04 EPS. Analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 13.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.22%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 5.02%.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.24, for a total value of $2,031,048.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,320,062.88. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 1,900 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.01, for a total value of $429,419.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,611 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,946,172.11. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 15,645 shares of company stock valued at $3,811,128. Corporate insiders own 1.50% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AYI. Raymond James & Associates grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 6.2% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 20,688 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $3,916,000 after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 12,834 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $2,429,000 after purchasing an additional 379 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 0.9% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,982,396 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $564,568,000 after purchasing an additional 25,598 shares during the last quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. purchased a new stake in Acuity Brands during the 1st quarter valued at about $1,395,000. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can grew its stake in Acuity Brands by 9.1% during the 1st quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 19,747 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $3,850,000 after purchasing an additional 1,647 shares during the last quarter. 98.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.