Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) Issues FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) updated its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided EPS guidance of 14.750-15.500 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of 14.910. The company issued revenue guidance of -. Acuity Brands also updated its FY24 guidance to $14.75-$15.50 EPS.

Acuity Brands Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of AYI traded up $2.86 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $264.69. 584,759 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 272,460. Acuity Brands has a 52-week low of $149.30 and a 52-week high of $272.74. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $250.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $208.90. The firm has a market cap of $8.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.40, a P/E/G ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24, a quick ratio of 1.85 and a current ratio of 2.45.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 9th. The electronics maker reported $3.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.23 by $0.49. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.43% and a net margin of 9.56%. The firm had revenue of $934.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $935.14 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $3.04 earnings per share. Acuity Brands’s revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 13.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 17th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 16th. Acuity Brands’s dividend payout ratio is currently 5.13%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AYI has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Acuity Brands from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $236.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Acuity Brands from $200.00 to $236.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 19th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $215.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, SVP Dianne S. Mills sold 6,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $225.11, for a total value of $1,350,660.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,554 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,925,590.94. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 1,900 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $226.01, for a total transaction of $429,419.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 8,611 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,946,172.11. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Dianne S. Mills sold 6,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $225.11, for a total value of $1,350,660.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 8,554 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,925,590.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Acuity Brands

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State of Wyoming boosted its stake in shares of Acuity Brands by 610.5% during the fourth quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 1,350 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $224,000 after acquiring an additional 1,160 shares during the last quarter. Mariner LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the third quarter valued at $223,000. Capula Management Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the second quarter valued at $215,000. Sherbrooke Park Advisers LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the fourth quarter valued at $215,000. Finally, Two Sigma Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Acuity Brands during the first quarter valued at $214,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.