Acuity, Inc. (AYI) vs Plug Power, Inc. (PLUG)

Acuity, Inc. and Plug Power, Inc. are both Electrical Equipment & Parts companies. Acuity, Inc. is the larger, with a market value of $9.3B against $2.8B — 3.3× the size. Plug Power, Inc. has negative trailing earnings, so its P/E is not meaningful; Acuity, Inc. trades at 20.7×. Plug Power, Inc. grew revenue faster over the last twelve months: 10.6% against 10.5%. Acuity, Inc. has the higher net margin (10.3% vs −220.6%) and the higher return on invested capital (13.3% vs −74.2%). Across the 19 metrics below, Acuity, Inc. leads on 15 and Plug Power, Inc. on 4.

Valuation

Metric AYI PLUG Electrical Equipment & Parts median
P/E 20.67 n/m 36.10
P/S 2.10 3.70 2.73
P/B 3.39 4.69 3.57
Price to free cash flow 15.12 n/m 33.31
EV/EBITDA 12.09 n/m 18.07
EV/Sales 2.18 4.37 2.75
Earnings yield 4.84% (63.64%) (5.84%)
Free cash flow yield 6.61% (18.94%) 0.00%

Profitability

Metric AYI PLUG Electrical Equipment & Parts median
Gross margin 49.31% (18.55%) 25.38%
Operating margin 14.49% (172.77%) 0.00%
Net margin 10.25% (220.59%) 0.00%
Free cash flow margin 13.88% (70.20%) 0.00%
Return on equity 17.38% (139.62%) 0.94%
Return on assets 10.18% (59.19%) (1.50%)
Return on invested capital 13.30% (74.22%) 0.00%

Growth

Metric AYI PLUG Electrical Equipment & Parts median
Revenue growth (TTM) 10.50% 10.59% 9.28%
EPS growth (last fiscal year) (6.77%) 47.01% —
Revenue growth, 5-year CAGR 5.49% 0.00% 9.80%
Net income growth, 5-year CAGR 9.82% 0.00% 0.00%

Health

Metric AYI PLUG Electrical Equipment & Parts median
Debt to equity 0.24 1.38 0.08
Current ratio 2.05 2.32 2.18
Net debt to EBITDA 0.68 (0.11) 0.26

Dividend

Metric AYI PLUG Electrical Equipment & Parts median
Dividend yield 0.22% — 0.84%
Payout ratio 0.05 0.00 0.00

Size

Metric AYI PLUG Electrical Equipment & Parts median
Market cap 9.26b 2.78b 177.98m

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