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; with another ~$200 million paid down after fiscal year-end, the QSC acquisition borrowings are now fully repaid.

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. Fiscal 2026, ended August 31, 2026 and reported on October 1, 2026, produced net sales of ~$4.64 billion, up about 7 percent, and net income of ~$531 million, with ~$826 million of cash from operations, up ~$225 million. The mix inside that is the story: in the fourth quarter total sales rose ~2.9 percent to ~$1.24 billion, slightly below the ~$1.26 billion analysts expected, because ABL was essentially flat at ~$959 million while AIS grew ~17 percent to ~$298 million. Adjusted diluted EPS of ~$5.77 beat the ~$5.56 consensus, but the revenue shortfall sent shares down about 4 percent on the day. The stock closed near ~$303 on October 16, 2026, down ~19 percent year to date and ~16 percent over one year, against an all-time closing high of ~$376.44 on June 30, 2026. Management guided fiscal 2027 to ~$4.7 to $4.9 billion of net sales and ~$20.50 to $22.00 of adjusted diluted EPS.

The core lighting segment is roughly three quarters of revenue and it was flat in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, with ABL adjusted operating margin down ~130 basis points on technology investment, so AIS growth is currently offsetting a stalled base rather than compounding on top of a growing one. Management has pointed to elongated quoting and release activity, a weak Architectural Billings Index, and materials and memory component inflation, and its fiscal 2027 outlook assumes ABL is only flat to up low single digits. Tariffs remain a variable: Acuity recorded ~$45 million of tariff refunds in the fourth quarter following 2026 court decisions on IEEPA authority and adjusted them out of results, so the underlying cost picture is cleaner to read than headline GAAP. 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. A further acquisition in AIS would add integration risk. At roughly 18 times trailing and 13 times forward earnings, the multiple has compressed through 2026, but it still assumes the mix shift continues if the lighting recovery keeps being deferred.

6 analysts publish price targets on AYI, averaging $370.17 against a $332.54 price as of November 2026, or +11.3%. The published targets run from $345.00 to $415.00, a narrow spread, and the ratings split 3 buy, 4 hold, 0 sell. Over the last six months there have been 3 raises and 5 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 ~$298 million of net sales in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, up ~17 percent year over year, with adjusted operating profit of ~$74 million, up ~36 percent, on a ~61.2 percent adjusted gross margin and a ~24.9 percent adjusted operating margin. The most optimistic published target, $415.00, assumes this works close to its best case.

The case against. The core lighting segment is roughly three quarters of revenue and it was flat in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, with ABL adjusted operating margin down ~130 basis points on technology investment, so AIS growth is currently offsetting a stalled base rather than compounding on top of a growing one. The most pessimistic target, $345.00, 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 (FY2026, ended Aug 31, 2026): ~$4.64B (Q4 up ~2.9% YoY)
• Net income (FY2026): ~$531M (~11.5% net margin)
• AIS net sales (Q4 FY2026): ~$298M, up ~17%
• Adjusted diluted EPS (Q4 FY2026): ~$5.77 vs ~$5.56 est.
• Operating cash flow (FY2026): ~$826M
• Market cap: ~$9.1B
• P/E ratio (TTM / forward): ~18x / ~13x
• Dividend yield: ~0.27%

On trailing GAAP earnings per share near ~$17.05 the stock prices at roughly ~18 times, falling to about ~13 times on forward estimates, with a price to sales ratio near ~2.0 and EV/EBITDA near ~10.8. 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 still only about a quarter of revenue. Shares are down from an all-time closing high of ~$376.44 on June 30, 2026 to near ~$303, and management's fiscal 2027 guidance of ~$20.50 to $22.00 in adjusted EPS frames the next year.

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. They are useful if you want to spread one thesis across several tickers.

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, 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. Fiscal 2026 closed with record cash flow and a 17 percent jump in Intelligent Spaces sales in the fourth quarter, but a slight revenue miss and flat lighting sales kept the stock near its lows for the year.

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 SBGSY.