Traders Buy High Volume of ADT Put Options (NYSE:ADT)

ADT Inc. (NYSE:ADT - Get Free Report) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock investors purchased 5,761 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 439% compared to the typical volume of 1,068 put options.

Institutional Trading of ADT

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of ADT. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of ADT in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $153,824,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in ADT by 20.6% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,555,115 shares of the security and automation business's stock valued at $307,876,000 after acquiring an additional 7,610,709 shares in the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP bought a new stake in shares of ADT during the 4th quarter valued at $48,687,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of ADT by 31.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 21,453,811 shares of the security and automation business's stock worth $148,246,000 after purchasing an additional 5,089,056 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of ADT by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 34,574,011 shares of the security and automation business's stock worth $238,906,000 after purchasing an additional 3,632,502 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.22% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have issued reports on ADT shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $9.00 price objective on shares of ADT in a research note on Monday, April 21st. Barclays upgraded ADT from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and increased their price target for the company from $7.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Friday, April 4th.

ADT Stock Performance

ADT stock traded up $0.09 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $8.30. The company had a trading volume of 6,728,299 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,372,096. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $7.87 and a 200 day moving average of $7.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.93, a current ratio of 0.81 and a quick ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market cap of $6.94 billion, a PE ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 1.29. ADT has a one year low of $6.53 and a one year high of $8.44.

ADT (NYSE:ADT - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The security and automation business reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.01. ADT had a return on equity of 17.77% and a net margin of 18.18%. The business had revenue of $1.27 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.25 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.16 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that ADT will post 0.7 earnings per share for the current year.

ADT Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, July 8th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 12th will be paid a $0.055 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 12th. This represents a $0.22 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.65%. ADT's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.93%.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.