Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Plans $0.15 Quarterly Dividend

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, June 26th, NASDAQ reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 18th will be given a dividend of 0.15 per share by the electronics maker on Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 18th.

Acuity Brands has a payout ratio of 3.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Acuity Brands to earn $15.91 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 3.8%.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 1.2 %

AYI traded up $2.79 during trading on Thursday, reaching $242.56. The stock had a trading volume of 731,095 shares, compared to its average volume of 267,169. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $254.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $243.80. The company has a current ratio of 2.59, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The company has a market capitalization of $7.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.28, a P/E/G ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.44. Acuity Brands has a one year low of $154.72 and a one year high of $272.74.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.85 by $0.23. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 21.22% and a net margin of 9.81%. The business had revenue of $905.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $897.01 million. As a group, analysts expect that Acuity Brands will post 14.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Acuity Brands

In other Acuity Brands news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Acuity Brands news, CFO Karen J. Holcom sold 7,745 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,320,062.88. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Maya Leibman bought 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $248.91 per share, for a total transaction of $49,782.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $49,782. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $227.00 to $261.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. StockNews.com downgraded Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Acuity Brands from $260.00 to $295.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $250.00 to $315.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $286.00 to $280.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, June 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $287.75.

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.