Acuity Inc. (AYI) Stock Price & How to Invest

Acuity Inc. is an Atlanta-based industrial technology company with roughly 13,000 employees, renamed from Acuity Brands, Inc. on March 26, 2025 while keeping the AYI ticker. It runs two segments. Acuity Brands Lighting (ABL) is the legacy business and still the bulk of revenue: luminaires, drivers and lighting controls sold into North American commercial construction and renovation under brands including Lithonia Lighting, Holophane, Gotham, Juno, Aculux, eldoLED, nLight and Sensor Switch, distributed largely through independent sales agents and electrical distributors. Acuity Intelligent Spaces (AIS) is the newer, smaller and faster-growing half: Distech Controls sells building management systems for HVAC, lighting, shades and access, Atrius is the data and cloud application layer, and QSC brings the Q-SYS full-stack audio, video and control platform. QSC was purchased for ~$1.215 billion in 2025, the largest acquisition in the company's history, and carried roughly $500 million of annual revenue at the time.

Acuity runs a fiscal year ending August 31, which matters when reading any figure attached to it. Fiscal 2025, ended August 31, 2025, produced net sales of ~$4.3 billion, up ~13.1 percent, with ABL at ~$3.6 billion and an adjusted operating profit of ~$768.6 million. Through the first nine months of fiscal 2026, ended May 31, 2026, net sales reached ~$3.4 billion, up ~8.3 percent, with adjusted diluted earnings per share of ~$14.14 and ~$520.2 million of cash from operations. The mix inside that is the story: in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 total sales rose only ~1.6 percent to ~$1.21 billion because ABL fell ~1.9 percent to ~$905.2 million while AIS grew ~14.9 percent to ~$303.5 million. On a trailing twelve-month basis the company shows ~$4.61 billion of revenue, ~$472 million of net income and ~$639 million of free cash flow, and the stock sits near ~$306 against an all-time closing high of ~$376.44 on June 30, 2026. Fourth-quarter and full-year fiscal 2026 results are scheduled for October 1, 2026.

The core lighting segment is roughly three quarters of revenue and it shrank in the most recent reported quarter, so AIS growth is currently offsetting a decline rather than compounding on top of one. Management has pointed to elongated quoting and release activity, a weak Architectural Billings Index, materials and memory component inflation, and higher selling, distribution and administrative expenses, and the combination held adjusted operating profit growth to ~0.8 percent in the third quarter of fiscal 2026 even as GAAP operating profit jumped ~38.3 percent on easier prior-year comparisons. Tariffs are an unresolved variable in both directions: Acuity has stated it paid tariffs that may be refundable following 2026 court decisions on IEEPA authority but has not disclosed an amount, and customers have been asking about price increases the company says are not yet warranted. In building management and audio-visual, Acuity competes against Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Schneider Electric and Siemens, all far larger, and in lighting against Signify and Hubbell, so the higher-margin growth is not taking place in an empty field. At roughly 20 times trailing earnings the shares already carry a multiple above a pure industrial manufacturer, which leaves limited cushion if the lighting recovery keeps being deferred, and fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year results on October 1, 2026 are the next test of that.

7 analysts publish price targets on AYI, averaging $398.29 against a $306.06 price as of September 2026, or +30.1%. The published targets run from $358.00 to $465.00, a narrow spread, and the ratings split 5 buy, 3 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 3 raises and 2 cuts among the published actions. A price target is what an analyst published on a date, not a prediction, and sell-side ratings skew positive across the whole market.

Read the full AYI forecast and price target for the target table, the recent rating actions by firm, and how the consensus has shifted.

We give no verdict on Acuity Inc.. Both cases are real, which is why the question is contested at all, so here is the strongest version of each.

The case for buying. Intelligent Spaces is where the growth is. AIS generated ~$303.5 million of net sales in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, up ~14.9 percent year over year, with adjusted operating profit of ~$76 million, up ~22.5 percent, on a ~60.3 percent adjusted gross margin. The most optimistic published target, $465.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. The core lighting segment is roughly three quarters of revenue and it shrank in the most recent reported quarter, so AIS growth is currently offsetting a decline rather than compounding on top of one. The most pessimistic target, $358.00, is roughly what AYI is worth if this bites instead.

Read the full bull and bear case on AYI, including what would have to change to break either one. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Acuity Inc.'s investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$4.61B
• Net sales (Q3 FY2026, quarter ended May 31, 2026): ~$1.21B
• Adjusted diluted EPS (first nine months FY2026): ~$14.14
• Operating cash flow (first nine months FY2026): ~$520.2M
• Market cap: ~$9.1B
• P/E ratio (TTM): ~20x

On trailing earnings per share near ~$15.06 the stock prices at roughly ~20 times, falling to about ~14 times on forward estimates, with a price to sales ratio near ~2.0 and an enterprise value around ~$9.5 billion against ~$411.9 million of cash and ~$804.3 million of total debt. That sits above a pure lighting manufacturer and below a building-software business, which is precisely the disagreement: the multiple is pricing a mix shift that is real but is currently only about a quarter of revenue. Shares are down from an all-time closing high of ~$376.44 on June 30, 2026 to near ~$306, and fiscal 2026 ended on August 31, 2026 with those full-year numbers due October 1, 2026.

If you want AYI exposure as part of a larger bundle rather than directly, these ETFs hold it meaningfully. Weights are approximate and refresh quarterly.

Other names that sit close to AYI: same theme, named as a direct competitor, or held beside it in the same funds. Each entry says which. Worth a look if you are thinking about diversification within a thesis rather than concentration on one ticker.

There are three common ways to get AYI exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it (QCLN), which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic portfolio, so AYI sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the portfolio route. Describe a thesis where AYI fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

New to this? Start with how to invest in stocks, see how to analyze a stock with AI, or compare the best AI stock analyzers.

Acuity is a cash-generative lighting manufacturer trying to re-rate as a building-technology company, and the share price mostly tracks how convincing that transition looks in any given quarter.

Whether AYI is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is AYI a buy or a sell?, and where the stock could go from here in the AYI stock forecast.

For income investors, whether AYI pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does AYI pay a dividend? And to weigh AYI against a peer, read the full side-by-side comparisons: AYI vs HON and AYI vs BE.