Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) versus Picocela (NASDAQ:PCLA) Critical Contrast

Picocela (NASDAQ:PCLA) and Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI) are both manufacturing companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, dividends, earnings, valuation and risk.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

98.2% of Acuity Brands shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.8% of Acuity Brands shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Picocela and Acuity Brands”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Picocela	$784.40 million	0.02	N/A	N/A	N/A
Acuity Brands	$3.86 billion	2.18	$422.60 million	$13.58	19.96

Acuity Brands has higher revenue and earnings than Picocela.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current recommendations and price targets for Picocela and Acuity Brands, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Picocela	0	0	0	0	0.00
Acuity Brands	0	3	3	0	2.50

Acuity Brands has a consensus price target of $341.40, indicating a potential upside of 25.95%. Given Acuity Brands’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Acuity Brands is more favorable than Picocela.

Profitability

This table compares Picocela and Acuity Brands’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Picocela	N/A	N/A	N/A
Acuity Brands	11.11%	19.98%	12.44%

Summary

Acuity Brands beats Picocela on 10 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Picocela

PicoCELA, Inc. engages in the manufacturing, installation, and services for enterprise wireless mesh solutions. It also offers wireless multi-hop relay devices. The company was founded by Hiroshi Furukawa on August 8, 2008 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

About Acuity Brands

Acuity Brands, Inc. provides lighting, lighting controls, building management system, location-aware applications in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL); and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG). The ABL segment provides commercial, architectural, and specialty lighting solutions, as well as lighting controls and components for various indoor and outdoor applications under the A-Light, Aculux, American Electric Lighting, Cyclone, Dark to Light, eldoLED, Eureka, Gotham, Healthcare Lighting, Holophane, Hydrel, Indy, IOTA, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Luminaire LED, Luminis, Mark Architectural Lighting, nLight, OPTOTRONIC, Peerless, RELOCWiring Solutions, and Sensor Switch. This segment serves electrical distributors, retail home improvement centers, electric utilities, national accounts, original equipment manufacturers, digital retailers, lighting showrooms, and energy service companies. The ISG segment offers building management solutions, such as products for controlling heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, shades, refrigeration, and building access that deliver end-to-end optimization of those building systems; and building management software that enhances building system management and automates labor intensive tasks. This segment serves system integrators, as well as retail stores, airports, and enterprise campuses. The company offers its products and solutions under the Atrius, Distech Controls, and KE2 Therm Solutions brands. Acuity Brands, Inc. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.