ADT (NYSE:ADT) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

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.

Wall Street Zen cut shares of ADT (NYSE:ADT - Free Report) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

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

ADT Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE ADT traded down $0.09 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $8.37. The stock had a trading volume of 3,372,894 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,329,156. The firm has a market cap of $6.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.67 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a current ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. ADT has a fifty-two week low of $6.68 and a fifty-two week high of $8.80. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $8.38 and a 200-day moving average of $8.03.

ADT (NYSE:ADT - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The security and automation business reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.19 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.28 billion. ADT had a return on equity of 18.58% and a net margin of 12.30%. The business's revenue was up 6.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.17 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that ADT will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current year.

ADT Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.055 per share. This represents a $0.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 11th. ADT's dividend payout ratio is 33.33%.

Insider Activity

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ADT

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ADT. Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in ADT by 2,089.4% in the 2nd quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 14,638,575 shares of the security and automation business's stock valued at $123,989,000 after purchasing an additional 13,969,976 shares in the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP purchased a new position in ADT in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $48,687,000. Millennium Management LLC increased its stake in ADT by 668.5% in the 1st quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 7,504,051 shares of the security and automation business's stock valued at $61,083,000 after purchasing an additional 6,527,539 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in ADT by 86.6% in the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 13,119,098 shares of the security and automation business's stock valued at $105,543,000 after purchasing an additional 6,089,671 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in ADT by 11.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 49,715,950 shares of the security and automation business's stock valued at $404,688,000 after purchasing an additional 5,160,835 shares in the last quarter. 87.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

ADT Company Profile

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.