Strs Ohio Buys Shares of 204,349 ADT Inc. $ADT

Key Points

• Strs Ohio has acquired a new stake in ADT Inc. with 204,349 shares valued at approximately $1.66 million, demonstrating growing institutional interest in the security and automation business.
• Analysts have varied opinions on ADT; while Morgan Stanley and Citigroup have raised their price targets, Wall Street Zen downgraded its rating, indicating mixed market sentiment.
• ADT recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.055 per share, translating to an annualized yield of 2.5%, with a payout ratio of 33.33%.

Strs Ohio bought a new position in shares of ADT Inc. (NYSE:ADT - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 204,349 shares of the security and automation business's stock, valued at approximately $1,663,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Zimmer Partners LP purchased a new stake in shares of ADT in the fourth quarter valued at about $48,687,000. Millennium Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of ADT by 668.5% in the first 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 during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of ADT by 86.6% in the first 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 during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 worth $404,688,000 after purchasing an additional 5,160,835 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of ADT by 21.6% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 26,077,931 shares of the security and automation business's stock valued at $212,264,000 after buying an additional 4,624,120 shares during the period. 87.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at ADT

In other ADT news, major shareholder Apollo Management Holdings Gp, sold 71,000,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, July 28th. The shares were 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 owned 112,650,366 shares of the company's stock, valued at $936,124,541.46. The trade was a 38.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 2.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ADT has been the topic of a number of research reports. Zacks Research upgraded shares of ADT to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of ADT from $9.00 to $9.50 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of ADT from $9.00 to $10.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, August 26th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of ADT from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Saturday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, ADT has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $9.34.

ADT Price Performance

ADT stock traded down $0.07 on Friday, reaching $8.58. The company had a trading volume of 22,313,181 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,130,221. ADT Inc. has a 1 year low of $6.68 and a 1 year high of $8.94. The company has a market cap of $7.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.00 and a beta of 1.13. The company's fifty day moving average is $8.58 and its 200 day moving average is $8.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 0.37 and a current ratio of 0.46.

ADT (NYSE:ADT - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The security and automation business reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.19 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $1.29 billion for 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 firm's revenue for the quarter was up 6.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.17 earnings per share. ADT has set its FY 2025 guidance at 0.810-0.890 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that ADT Inc. will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current year.

ADT Announces Dividend

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

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.