Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) Plans Dividend Increase – $0.17 Per Share

Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 23rd,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, February 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.17 per share by the electronics maker on Friday, February 14th. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.20%. This is a boost from Acuity Brands’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15.

Acuity Brands has raised its dividend by an average of 4.9% per year over the last three years. Acuity Brands has a payout ratio of 3.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Acuity Brands to earn $16.97 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 3.5%.

Acuity Brands Stock Up 0.2 %

AYI stock traded up $0.59 on Thursday, reaching $337.44. 253,427 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 405,367. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.98 and a quick ratio of 2.38. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $315.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $285.67. Acuity Brands has a one year low of $217.64 and a one year high of $340.74. The company has a market cap of $10.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.14 and a beta of 1.40.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 8th. The electronics maker reported $3.97 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $3.87 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $951.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.60 million. Acuity Brands had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 11.11%. Acuity Brands’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $3.72 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands will post 15.7 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AYI has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Acuity Brands from $266.00 to $303.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on Acuity Brands from $320.00 to $336.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, January 9th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Acuity Brands from $280.00 to $318.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Acuity Brands from $370.00 to $380.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 9th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Acuity Brands presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $341.40.

Insider Transactions at Acuity Brands

In other news, SVP Barry R. Goldman sold 5,120 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.00, for a total value of $1,561,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 8,438 shares in the company, valued at $2,573,590. This represents a 37.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 2.80% 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.