Acuity Brands (AYI) is a Top-Ranked Growth Stock: Should You Buy?

Core Insights - Zacks Premium offers various tools for investors to enhance their stock market engagement and confidence [1] - The Zacks Style Scores are designed to help investors select stocks with the highest potential to outperform the market in the short term [2] Zacks Style Scores Overview - The Style Scores categorize stocks into four types: Value Score, Growth Score, Momentum Score, and VGM Score, each focusing on different investment strategies [2][3][4] - Value Score identifies undervalued stocks using financial ratios like P/E and Price/Sales [2] - Growth Score emphasizes a company's financial health and future growth potential based on earnings and cash flow [3] - Momentum Score tracks price trends to identify favorable investment opportunities [3] - VGM Score combines all three styles to provide a comprehensive assessment of stocks [4] Zacks Rank and Style Scores Interaction - The Zacks Rank is a proprietary model that uses earnings estimate revisions to evaluate stocks, with 1 (Strong Buy) stocks historically yielding an average annual return of +25.41% since 1988 [5] - To maximize returns, investors should focus on stocks with a Zacks Rank of 1 or 2 and Style Scores of A or B [6] - Stocks with lower ranks, even with high Style Scores, may indicate a downward trend in earnings and potential price decline [6] Company Spotlight: Acuity Brands (AYI) - Acuity Brands, headquartered in Atlanta, GA, specializes in manufacturing and distributing lighting fixtures and related components [7] - AYI holds a Zacks Rank of 3 (Hold) and has a VGM Score of A, making it a potential candidate for growth investors [7] - The company is projected to achieve a year-over-year earnings growth of 5.3% for the current fiscal year [8] - Recent earnings estimates for AYI have been revised upward, with the Zacks Consensus Estimate increasing by $0.35 to $14.79 per share [8] - AYI has an average earnings surprise of 13.9%, indicating strong performance relative to expectations [8]