Critical Survey: Fluence Energy (NASDAQ:FLNC) versus Acuity (NYSE:AYI)

Fluence Energy (NASDAQ:FLNC) and Acuity (NYSE:AYI) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, valuation, risk, institutional ownership and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Fluence Energy and Acuity, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Fluence Energy	7	14	4	0	1.88
Acuity	0	5	4	0	2.44

Fluence Energy presently has a consensus price target of $11.57, indicating a potential upside of 97.38%. Acuity has a consensus price target of $380.20, indicating a potential upside of 23.13%. Given Fluence Energy’s higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Fluence Energy is more favorable than Acuity.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Fluence Energy and Acuity”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Fluence Energy	$2.26 billion	0.48	-$48.31 million	($0.61)	-9.61
Acuity	$4.64 billion	1.99	$531.30 million	$17.10	18.06

Acuity has higher revenue and earnings than Fluence Energy. Fluence Energy is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Acuity, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Profitability

This table compares Fluence Energy and Acuity’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Fluence Energy	-3.13%	-16.79%	-3.37%
Acuity	11.45%	20.30%	12.43%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

53.2% of Fluence Energy shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.2% of Acuity shares are held by institutional investors. 0.7% of Fluence Energy shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Acuity shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

Fluence Energy has a beta of 2.77, suggesting that its stock price is 177% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Acuity has a beta of 1.3, suggesting that its stock price is 30% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Acuity beats Fluence Energy on 10 of the 12 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Fluence Energy

Fluence Energy, Inc., through its subsidiaries, offers energy storage products and solution, services, and artificial intelligence enabled software-as-a-service products for renewables and storage applications in the Americas, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. The company sells energy storage products with integrated hardware, software, and digital intelligence. Its energy storage products include Gridstack Pro, a large-scale front-of-the-meter application; Gridstack, a front-of-the-meter application; Sunstack, a DC-coupled energy storage product for DC-coupled solar + storage projects; Edgestack, for smaller-scale commercial and industrial use cases; and Ultrastack, for critical system requirements of distribution and transmission networks. The company also provides engineering and delivery services to support the deployment of its storage products; operational and maintenance services; and digital applications. It serves independent power producers, developer, utilities, and other generators. Fluence Energy, Inc. was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Fluence Energy, Inc. is a joint venture of Siemens Aktiengesellschaft and The AES Corporation.

About Acuity

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.