I last mentioned Acuity Brands (AYI), a lighting and building management solutions company with $3.7B in net sales in 2018, three months ago. At that time, I described a good risk/reward setup to go long the stock post-earnings. AYI shot nearly straight up from there. The stock broke through resistance at its 200-day moving average (DMA) and gained as much as 34.7% before peaking intraday in September. While I only participated in a portion of that run-up, I am glad I did not overstay my welcome. Fast forward to last week: AYI suffered a massive post-earnings gap down. The stock lost 16.3% and sliced right through 200DMA support after the 50DMA gap down. Sellers closed the week confirming the bearish breakdown. AYI has now almost erased its entire incremental gain from July earnings.

Source: FreeStockCharts.com

Acuity Brands looks set to reverse all its previous post-earnings gains after a disastrous earnings report that sent the stock crashing through its 50 and 200DMAs

This moment is critical for the stock. AYI hit an all-time high in August 2016 and sold off pretty steadily from there (on a monthly basis) until reaching a 4-year low in May, 2018. If AYI completes a full reversal of its gains from July earnings, then the stock greatly increases its risk of resuming the downtrend from the all-time high.

AYI’s earnings report was interesting for a lot more than the technical disaster. The company also delivered some telling remarks about today’s inflationary environment. The company began its conference call by launching right into the bad news. From the Seeking Alpha transcript:

“While our results for the fourth quarter and the full year were records, we had higher expectations coming into 2018. Market conditions for growth were far more subdued than most had originally anticipated, especially for larger commercial projects and deflationary pricing persisted throughout the year, while cost pressures were far more significant than most had forecast, particularly in the fourth quarter.”