Acuity Brands (NYSE: AYI) hasn't been able to establish an earnings trend -- it's been bouncing between beating and falling short of estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, June 29. Acuity Brands is a provider of lighting fixtures, control devices, components, systems, and services for commercial and institutional, industrial, infrastructure, and residential applications for various markets.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Acuity, with four of seven rating the company a buy and the remainder rating it a hold.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $447.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 9.8% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average analyst is estimating earnings of 63 cents per share. Estimates range from 56 cents to 66 cents.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock with 98.7% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All Stars with 93.3% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Acuity Brands, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 73 posts in the past 30 days. Acuity Brands has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Acuity Brands' profit has risen year over year by an average of 37.5%. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Gross Margin

39.4%

41.4%

41.5%

40.1%

Net Margin

4.8%

5.7%

6.1%

5.2%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Acuity Brands movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.

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