ADT Inc. (NYSE:ADT) Short Interest Update

ADT Inc. (NYSE:ADT) was the recipient of a significant drop in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 21,320,000 shares, a drop of 9.5% from the September 30th total of 23,550,000 shares. Currently, 5.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 4,720,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of ADT in the second quarter valued at approximately $195,461,000. Ariel Investments LLC grew its stake in ADT by 31.8% in the 1st quarter. Ariel Investments LLC now owns 29,579,797 shares of the security and automation business’s stock valued at $198,776,000 after purchasing an additional 7,131,950 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management increased its position in shares of ADT by 186.0% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 9,646,113 shares of the security and automation business’s stock valued at $73,310,000 after purchasing an additional 6,272,974 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of ADT by 61.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 12,359,752 shares of the security and automation business’s stock worth $93,937,000 after purchasing an additional 4,705,544 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ADT by 10.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,406,307 shares of the security and automation business’s stock worth $237,930,000 after buying an additional 3,427,575 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.22% of the company’s stock.

ADT Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE ADT traded up $0.06 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $7.26. The stock had a trading volume of 444,015 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,321,580. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $7.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $7.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.93, a quick ratio of 0.64 and a current ratio of 0.81. ADT has a twelve month low of $5.63 and a twelve month high of $8.25. The firm has a market cap of $6.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.83 and a beta of 1.53.

ADT (NYSE:ADT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The security and automation business reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.03. ADT had a net margin of 18.18% and a return on equity of 17.77%. The business had revenue of $1.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.07 EPS. ADT’s revenue was up 5.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ADT will post 0.7 EPS for the current year.

ADT Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 12th will be issued a $0.055 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 12th. This represents a $0.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.03%. ADT’s dividend payout ratio is presently 23.91%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on ADT. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on ADT from $8.20 to $9.20 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on ADT from $8.00 to $9.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, October 25th.

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.