09:19 AM EST, 01/08/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Acuity Brands ( AYI ) on Wednesday reported better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter earnings, while the provider of lighting and building management solutions raised its full-year outlook.

The company's adjusted earnings rose to $3.97 a share for the three months through November from $3.72 the year before, topping the FactSet-polled consensus of $3.90. Sales inclined about 2% year over year to $951.6 million, but missed the Street's view for $955.6 million.

"Our fiscal 2025 first-quarter performance was solid," Chief Executive Neil Ashe said in a statement. "We delivered sales growth, increased our adjusted operating profit and adjusted operating profit margin, and increased our adjusted diluted earnings per share."

Revenue in the brands lighting segment rose 1.1% from last year to $886 million. The increase was mainly due to sales growth in the company's independent sales network and direct sales channel, Chief Financial Officer Karen Holcom said on an earnings call, according to a FactSet transcript. Sales in the intelligent spaces business climbed about 15% to $73.5 million.

Adjusted operating profit as a percent of net sales rose 20 basis points to 16.7% during the quarter, buoyed by a substantial improvement in the company's gross profit margin year over year, "driven by product vitality, the management of price and cost and productivity improvements," according to Holcom. Selling, distribution and administrative expenses rose to $316 million from $295.5 million in the prior-year period, the company said.

For fiscal 2025, Acuity now expects adjusted EPS to be in a range of $16.5 to $18, compared with the previous outlook of $16 to $17.5, Holcom said on the call. Sales are pegged at $4.3 billion to $4.5 billion versus prior projections of $3.9 billion to $4.1 billion. The Street is looking for non-GAAP EPS of $16.89 and sales of nearly $4.1 billion.

The company updated its full-year outlook to reflect its $1.22 billion acquisition of audio, video and control products company QSC completed earlier this month. "We will incur integration expenses as well as the impact of purchase accounting adjustments throughout the year," Holcom told analysts.