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 $9.6B against $1.9B — 5.1× the size. Plug Power, Inc. has negative trailing earnings, so its P/E is not meaningful; Acuity, Inc. trades at 18.5×. Plug Power, Inc. grew revenue faster over the last twelve months: 10.6% against 6.82%. Acuity, Inc. has the higher net margin (11.5% vs −220.6%) and the higher return on invested capital (14.7% 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 18.51 n/m 25.00
P/S 2.12 2.71 2.12
P/B 3.31 3.43 2.72
Price to free cash flow 13.17 n/m 22.41
EV/EBITDA 11.39 n/m 12.34
EV/Sales 2.14 3.38 1.87
Earnings yield 5.40% (86.90%) (6.09%)
Free cash flow yield 7.59% (25.86%) (4.62%)

Profitability

Metric AYI PLUG Electrical Equipment & Parts median
Gross margin 50.64% (18.55%) 30.08%
Operating margin 15.38% (172.77%) 0.00%
Net margin 11.45% (220.59%) 0.00%
Free cash flow margin 16.11% (70.20%) 0.00%
Return on equity 18.64% (139.62%) 0.00%
Return on assets 11.04% (59.19%) 0.00%
Return on invested capital 14.70% (74.22%) 0.00%

Growth

Metric AYI PLUG Electrical Equipment & Parts median
Revenue growth (TTM) 6.82% 10.59% 10.59%
EPS growth (last fiscal year) 36.07% 47.01% 24.08%
Revenue growth, 5-year CAGR 6.05% 0.00% 9.92%
Net income growth, 5-year CAGR 11.64% 0.00% 0.00%

Health

Metric AYI PLUG Electrical Equipment & Parts median
Debt to equity 0.23 1.38 0.15
Current ratio 1.70 2.32 2.34
Net debt to EBITDA 0.07 (0.11) 0.26

Dividend

Metric AYI PLUG Electrical Equipment & Parts median
Dividend yield 0.25% — 0.32%
Payout ratio 0.05 — 0.09

Size

Metric AYI PLUG Electrical Equipment & Parts median
Market cap 9.60b 1.89b 147.09m

Compare with another peer

Any metric, up to five companies and an Excel export Powerpack