ADT Inc. (NYSE:ADT) Short Interest Up 6.5% in August

ADT Inc. (NYSE:ADT) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 15,940,000 shares, a growth of 6.5% from the August 15th total of 14,970,000 shares. Currently, 3.8% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,980,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.2 days.

Institutional Trading of ADT

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ADT. Acadian Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of ADT in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd purchased a new position in shares of ADT in the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of ADT in the 4th quarter worth about $36,000. Duncker Streett & Co. Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of ADT during the 2nd quarter valued at about $38,000. Finally, Diversify Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in shares of ADT in the 2nd quarter valued at about $76,000. Institutional investors own 87.22% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on ADT from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 2nd.

ADT Price Performance

Shares of ADT stock traded up $0.14 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $7.18. The company had a trading volume of 4,946,406 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,940,734. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $7.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $7.07. ADT has a 52-week low of $5.53 and a 52-week high of $7.92. The company has a market capitalization of $6.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.06 and a beta of 1.54.

ADT (NYSE:ADT) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The security and automation business reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.17. The business had revenue of $1.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.21 billion. ADT had a net margin of 13.83% and a return on equity of 15.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.15 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that ADT will post 0.62 earnings per share for the current year.

ADT Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.055 per share. This represents a $0.22 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.06%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. ADT’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.43%.

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.