Sifting through countless of stocks in the Electrical Equipment industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Acuity Inc. or Plug Power Inc. because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.
Read on to learn how Acuity Inc. and Plug Power Inc. compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.
About Acuity Inc. and Plug Power Inc.
Acuity 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, IOTA, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Luminaire LED, Luminis, Mark Architectural Lighting, nLight, OPTOTRONIC, Peerless, RELOC Wiring Solutions, and Sensor Switch. This segment serves electrical distributors, retail home improvement centers, electric utilities, corporate 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. It offers its products and solutions under the Atrius, Distech Controls, and KE2 Therm Solutions brands. Acuity Inc. was formerly known as Acuity Brands, Inc. and changed its name to Acuity Inc. in March 2025. Acuity Inc. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Plug Power Inc. develops hydrogen fuel cells product solutions in North America, Europe, Asia, and internationally. The company offers GenDrive, a hydrogen fueled proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system that provides power to material handling electric vehicles; GenSure, a stationary fuel cell solution that offers modular PEM fuel cell power to support the backup and grid-support power requirements of the telecommunications, transportation, and utility sectors; and Progen, a fuel cell stack and engine technology used in mobility and stationary fuel cell systems. It also offers GenFuel, a liquid hydrogen fueling delivery, generation, storage, and dispensing system; GenCare, an ongoing Internet of Things-based maintenance and on-site service program for GenDrive fuel cell systems; GenSure fuel cell systems; GenFuel hydrogen storage and dispensing products; ProGen fuel cell engines; and GenKey, an integrated turn-key solution for transitioning to fuel cell power. In addition, the company also provides electrolyzers, a hydrogen generator for clean hydrogen production; liquefaction systems that provides liquid hydrogen to customers; cryogenic equipment for the distribution of liquified hydrogen, oxygen, argon, nitrogen, and other cryogenic gases, including trailers and mobile storage equipment; and liquid hydrogen, an alternative to fuel to fossil-based energy. The company sells its products through a direct product sales force, original equipment manufacturers, and dealer networks. Plug Power Inc. was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Latham, New York.
Latest Electrical Equipment and Acuity Inc., Plug Power Inc. Stock News
As of July 9, 2025, Acuity Inc. had a $9.2 billion market capitalization, compared to the Electrical Equipment median of $327.1 million. Acuity Inc.’s stock is NA in 2025, NA in the previous five trading days and up 26.68% in the past year.
Currently, Acuity Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 23.9. Acuity Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $4.2 billion with a 9.6% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 21.7%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $17.315 per share for the current fiscal year. Acuity Inc. currently has a 0.2% dividend yield.
Currently, Plug Power Inc. does not have a price-earnings ratio. Plug Power Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $642.2 million with a -312.3% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 11.1%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $-0.611 per share for the current fiscal year. Plug Power Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.
How We Compare Acuity Inc. and Plug Power Inc. Stock Grades
Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.
AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Acuity Inc. and Plug Power Inc.’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.
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Acuity Inc. and Plug Power Inc. Stock Value Grades
| Company | Ticker | Value |
| Acuity Inc. | AYI |
D |
| Plug Power Inc. | PLUG |
D |
Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.
Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.
AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.
Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.
Acuity Inc. has a Value Score of 40, which is Expensive.
Plug Power Inc. has a Value Score of 37, which is Expensive.
The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner
Neither Acuity Inc. or Plug Power Inc. has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Acuity Inc. or Plug Power Inc. is the better investment when it comes to value.
Acuity Inc. and Plug Power Inc.’s Quality Grades
| Company | Ticker | Quality |
| Acuity Inc. | AYI |
B |
| Plug Power Inc. | PLUG |
F |
Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.
The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.
The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.
Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.
Acuity Inc. has a Quality Score of 76, which is Strong.
Plug Power Inc. has a Quality Score of 15, which is Very Weak.
The Quality Grade Winner: Acuity Inc.
As you can clearly see from the Quality Grade breakdown above, Acuity Inc. has a better overall quality grade than Plug Power Inc.. For investors who are looking for companies with higher quality than others in the same industry, Acuity Inc. could be a good stock to add to their portfolios. However, it’s important for investors to analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before deciding whether to buy.
Acuity Inc. and Plug Power Inc.’s Momentum Grades
| Company | Ticker | Momentum |
| Acuity Inc. | AYI |
B |
| Plug Power Inc. | PLUG |
B |
Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.
Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.
Acuity Inc. has a Momentum Score of 69, which is Strong.
Plug Power Inc. has a Momentum Score of 64, which is Strong.
The Momentum Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!
Looking at the Momentum Grade breakdown above, both Acuity Inc. and Plug Power Inc. have a grade of B. For those who focus solely on a company’s momentum, further research will need to be conducted into both companies to see if they fit your individual needs as an investor.
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Other Acuity Inc. and Plug Power Inc. Grades
In addition to Momentum, Value and Quality, A+ Investor also provides grades for Growth and Estimate Revisions.
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Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).
Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures growth through consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations.
These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Acuity Inc. and Plug Power Inc. pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.
So, Which Is the Better Investment, Acuity Inc. or Plug Power Inc. Stock?
Overall, Acuity Inc. stock has a Value Score of 40, Momentum Score of 69 and Quality Score of 76.
Plug Power Inc. stock has a Value Score of 37, Momentum Score of 64 and Quality Score of 15.
Comparing Acuity Inc. and Plug Power Inc.’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.
Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.
A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.
AAII Disclaimer
We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.
