ADT (NYSE:ADT) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to "Buy"

Key Points

• ADT was downgraded from a "strong-buy" to a "buy" rating by Wall Street Zen, reflecting a change in analysts' perception of the stock's potential.
• Despite the downgrade, ADT reported a quarterly earnings of $0.23 per share, beating expectations, and showing a 6.8% revenue increase year-over-year.
• Major shareholder Apollo Management sold 71 million shares, decreasing their ownership by 38.66%, indicating significant insider trading activity.

ADT (NYSE:ADT - Get Free Report) was downgraded by Wall Street Zen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Royal Bank Of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $9.00 price target on shares of ADT in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Barclays raised ADT from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and raised their target price for the stock from $7.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on ADT from $9.00 to $9.50 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Monday, July 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $9.18.

ADT Price Performance

ADT stock opened at $8.30 on Friday. The business's fifty day moving average price is $8.37 and its 200 day moving average price is $8.00. ADT has a 12-month low of $6.53 and a 12-month high of $8.80. The company has a current ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. The company has a market capitalization of $6.90 billion, a PE ratio of 12.58 and a beta of 1.20.

ADT (NYSE:ADT - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The security and automation business reported $0.23 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.19 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.28 billion. ADT had a net margin of 12.30% and a return on equity of 18.58%. The firm's revenue was up 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.17 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that ADT will post 0.7 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at ADT

In other news, major shareholder Apollo Management Holdings Gp, sold 71,000,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $8.31, for a total value of $590,010,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 112,650,366 shares in the company, valued at $936,124,541.46. This trade represents a 38.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 166,000,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,363,160,000. Corporate insiders own 2.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of ADT

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in shares of ADT by 96.1% in the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 170,768 shares of the security and automation business's stock valued at $1,180,000 after buying an additional 83,689 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. grew its stake in ADT by 1,132.1% in the 4th quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 243,702 shares of the security and automation business's stock worth $1,684,000 after acquiring an additional 223,922 shares during the period. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS acquired a new position in ADT in the 4th quarter valued at $426,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of ADT by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,876,443 shares of the security and automation business's stock worth $47,529,000 after purchasing an additional 1,001,303 shares during the period. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new position in shares of ADT during the 4th quarter worth $62,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.22% of the company's stock.

About ADT

ADT Inc provides security, interactive, and smart home solutions to residential and small business customers in the United States. It operates through two segments, Consumer and Small Business, and Solar. The company provides burglar and life safety alarms, smart security cameras, smart home automation systems, and video surveillance systems.

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