MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. Purchases 11,898 Shares of Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI)

MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its position in Acuity Brands, Inc. (NYSE:AYI - Free Report) by 5.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 212,391 shares of the electronics maker's stock after purchasing an additional 11,898 shares during the period. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. owned approximately 0.69% of Acuity Brands worth $62,046,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,104,542 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $906,930,000 after buying an additional 16,407 shares during the period. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,120,979 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $327,471,000 after buying an additional 8,705 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in shares of Acuity Brands by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,117,489 shares of the electronics maker's stock valued at $326,452,000 after buying an additional 103,162 shares during the period. Durable Capital Partners LP boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 158.9% during the fourth quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 1,088,477 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $317,977,000 after purchasing an additional 668,048 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Acuity Brands by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 644,109 shares of the electronics maker's stock worth $188,211,000 after purchasing an additional 17,299 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.21% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently commented on AYI shares. Robert W. Baird reduced their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $310.00 to $295.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Acuity Brands from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Morgan Stanley set a $335.00 target price on shares of Acuity Brands in a report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on shares of Acuity Brands from $290.00 to $275.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Acuity Brands has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $317.60.

Acuity Brands Stock Performance

Shares of AYI traded up $1.39 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $273.23. The company had a trading volume of 145,626 shares, compared to its average volume of 303,898. The firm has a market cap of $8.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.12, a PEG ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.60. The business has a fifty day moving average of $251.74 and a 200-day moving average of $293.05. Acuity Brands, Inc. has a 12 month low of $216.81 and a 12 month high of $345.30. The company has a quick ratio of 2.38, a current ratio of 2.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Acuity Brands (NYSE:AYI - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 3rd. The electronics maker reported $3.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.67 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.03 billion. Acuity Brands had a net margin of 11.11% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The company's revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $3.38 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Acuity Brands, Inc. will post 15.86 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Acuity Brands Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 1st. Investors of record on Friday, April 18th were given a dividend of $0.17 per share. This represents a $0.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 17th. Acuity Brands's dividend payout ratio is 5.16%.

About Acuity Brands

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.