How to buy Acuity Brands stock | 93.54

Acuity Brands, Inc is an electrical equipment & parts business based in the US. Acuity Brands shares (AYI) are listed on the NYSE and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Acuity Brands employs 10,000 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$3.3 billion.

How to buy shares in Acuity Brands

1. Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
2. Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
3. Search for Acuity Brands. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: AYI. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
4. Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Acuity Brands reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
5. Decide on how many to buy. At last close price of USD$93.54, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Acuity Brands, depending on your broker.
6. Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Acuity Brands. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.

How has coronavirus impacted Acuity Brands's share price?

Since the stock market crash in March caused by coronavirus, Acuity Brands's share price has had significant negative movement.

Its last market close was USD$93.54, which is 19.15% down on its pre-crash value of USD$115.7 and 38.66% up on the lowest point reached during the March crash when the shares fell as low as USD$67.46.

If you had bought USD$1,000 worth of Acuity Brands shares at the start of February 2020, those shares would have been worth USD$597.78 at the bottom of the March crash, and if you held on to them, then as of the last market close they'd be worth USD$786.67.

Acuity Brands share price

Use our graph to track the performance of AYI stocks over time.

Acuity Brands shares at a glance

• Key figures

Information last updated 2020-10-19.

Latest market close	USD$93.54
52-week range	USD$67.46 - USD$143.55
50-day moving average	USD$103.3341
200-day moving average	USD$96.0854
Wall St. target price	USD$104
PE ratio	15.0335
Dividend yield	USD$0.52 (0.55%)
Earnings per share (TTM)	USD$6.27

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Is it a good time to buy Acuity Brands stock?

The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.

Technical Analysis of Acuity Brands, Inc by TradingView

This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.

Acuity Brands price performance over time

Historical closes compared with the close of $93.54 from 2020-10-19

1 week (2020-11-18)	-14.79%
1 month (2020-10-26)	2.48%
3 months (2020-08-25)	-15.09%
6 months (2020-05-22)	10.33%

1 year (2019-11-25)	-27.75%
2 years (2018-11-23)	-23.74%
3 years (2017-11-24)	-40.79%
5 years (2015-11-25)	-59.26%

Is Acuity Brands under- or over-valued?

Valuing Acuity Brands stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Acuity Brands's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.

Acuity Brands's P/E ratio

Acuity Brands's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 15x. In other words, Acuity Brands shares trade at around 15x recent earnings.

That's relatively low compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.

Acuity Brands's PEG ratio

Acuity Brands's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 1.2421. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.

The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Acuity Brands's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.

Acuity Brands's EBITDA

Acuity Brands's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$477.5 million.

The EBITDA is a measure of a Acuity Brands's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.

Acuity Brands financials

Revenue TTM	USD$3.3 billion
Operating margin TTM	11.32%
Gross profit TTM	USD$1.4 billion
Return on assets TTM	7.06%
Return on equity TTM	12.27%
Profit margin	7.47%
Book value	$54.135
Market capitalisation	USD$3.7 billion

TTM: trailing 12 months

Shorting Acuity Brands shares

There are currently 3.4 million Acuity Brands shares held short by investors – that's known as Acuity Brands's "short interest". This figure is 1.6% down from 3.5 million last month.

There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Acuity Brands shares can be evaluated.

Acuity Brands's "short interest ratio" (SIR)

Acuity Brands's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Acuity Brands shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Acuity Brands shares traded daily (recently around 465786.33879781). Acuity Brands's SIR currently stands at 7.32. In other words for every 100,000 Acuity Brands shares traded daily on the market, roughly 7320 shares are currently held short.

However Acuity Brands's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Acuity Brands shares, or, against the total number of tradable Acuity Brands shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Acuity Brands's short interest could be expressed as 0.09% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Acuity Brands shares in existence, roughly 90 shares are currently held short) or 0.0974% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Acuity Brands shares, roughly 97 shares are currently held short).

A SIR below 10% would generally be considered to indicate a fairly optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Acuity Brands.

Find out more about how you can short Acuity Brands stock.

Acuity Brands's environmental, social and governance track record

Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Acuity Brands.

When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.

Acuity Brands's total ESG risk score

Total ESG risk: 30.8

Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Acuity Brands's overall score of 30.8 (as at 10/01/2020) is nothing to write home about – landing it in it in the 48th percentile of companies rated in the same sector.

ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Acuity Brands is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).

Acuity Brands's environmental score

Environmental score: 14.55/100

Acuity Brands's environmental score of 14.55 puts it squarely in the 9th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Acuity Brands is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Acuity Brands's social score

Social score: 18.2/100

Acuity Brands's social score of 18.2 puts it squarely in the 9th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Acuity Brands is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.

Acuity Brands's governance score

Governance score: 13.56/100

Acuity Brands's governance score puts it squarely in the 9th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that Acuity Brands is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.

Acuity Brands's controversy score

Controversy score: 2/5

ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Acuity Brands scored a 2 out of 5 for controversy – the second-highest score possible, reflecting that Acuity Brands has, for the most part, managed to keep its nose clean.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary

Acuity Brands, Inc was last rated for ESG on: 2020-10-01.

Total ESG score	30.8
Total ESG percentile	48.12
Environmental score	14.55
Environmental score percentile	9
Social score	18.2
Social score percentile	9
Governance score	13.56
Governance score percentile	9
Level of controversy	2

Acuity Brands share dividends

Dividend payout ratio: 4.72% of net profits

Recently Acuity Brands has paid out, on average, around 4.72% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 0.55% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Acuity Brands shareholders could enjoy a 0.55% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Acuity Brands's case, that would currently equate to about $0.52 per share.

While Acuity Brands's payout ratio might seem low, this can signify that Acuity Brands is investing more in its future growth.

Acuity Brands's most recent dividend payout was on 2 November 2020. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 16 October 2020 (the "ex-dividend date").

Have Acuity Brands's shares ever split?

Acuity Brands's shares were split on 2 May 2008.

Acuity Brands share price volatility

Over the last 12 months, Acuity Brands's shares have ranged in value from as little as $67.46 up to $143.55. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".

Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NYSE average) beta is 1, while Acuity Brands's is 1.4004. This would suggest that Acuity Brands's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).

Acuity Brands overview

Acuity Brands, Inc. provides lighting and building management solutions and services for commercial, institutional, industrial, infrastructure, and residential applications in North America and internationally. The company offers lighting and control products and solutions, including recessed, surface, and suspended lighting; down, decorative, emergency and exit, track, day, special-use, street and roadway, parking garage, underwater, area pedestrian, flood, decorative site, and landscape lighting; occupancy sensors; photo controls; relay panels; architectural dimming panels; and integrated lighting controls systems. It also provides light emitting diode drivers, power supplies, modular wiring, sensors, glass, and inverters, as well as services across applications that primarily relate to monitoring and controlling lighting systems through network technologies and the commissioning of control systems. The company markets its products under the Lithonia Lighting, Holophane, Peerless, Gotham, Mark Architectural Lighting, Winona Lighting, Juno, Indy, Aculux, Healthcare Lighting, Hydrel, American Electric Lighting, Antique Street Lamps, Sunoptics, eldoLED, Distech Controls, nLight, ROAM, Sensor Switch, Power Sentry, IOTA, and Atrius brands. It serves electrical distributors, retail home improvement centers, electric utilities, national accounts, system integrators, utility distributors, value-added resellers, digital retailers, government entities and municipalities, lighting showrooms, developers, original equipment manufacturers, and energy service companies, as well as the new construction, renovation, and maintenance and repair markets. The company sells its products through independent sales agents, electrical distributors, system integrators, and sales representatives, as well as through a network of distribution centers, regional warehouses, and commercial warehouses. Acuity Brands, Inc. was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.

Frequently asked questions

• What percentage of Acuity Brands is owned by insiders or institutions?

  Currently 1.191% of Acuity Brands shares are held by insiders and 97.596% by institutions.

• How many people work for Acuity Brands?

  Latest data suggests 10,000 work at Acuity Brands.

• When does the fiscal year end for Acuity Brands?

  Acuity Brands's fiscal year ends in August.

• Where is Acuity Brands based?

  Acuity Brands's address is: 1170 Peachtree Street, N.E., Atlanta, GA, United States, 30309

• What is Acuity Brands's ISIN number?

  Acuity Brands's international securities identification number is: US00508Y1029

• What is Acuity Brands's CUSIP number?

  Acuity Brands's Committee on Uniform Securities Identification Procedures number is: 00508Y102