ADT Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:ADT)

ADT Inc. (NYSE:ADT) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Traders purchased 2,612 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 696% compared to the typical daily volume of 328 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on ADT from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, August 2nd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ADT. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its holdings in ADT by 31.4% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,297,954 shares of the security and automation business’s stock valued at $8,703,000 after acquiring an additional 310,406 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new position in ADT in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,017,000. Quantbot Technologies LP lifted its holdings in ADT by 452.9% in the first quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 179,036 shares of the security and automation business’s stock valued at $1,203,000 after acquiring an additional 146,657 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in ADT by 10.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 35,406,307 shares of the security and automation business’s stock valued at $237,930,000 after acquiring an additional 3,427,575 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its holdings in ADT by 246.8% in the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 192,468 shares of the security and automation business’s stock valued at $1,293,000 after acquiring an additional 136,977 shares during the last quarter. 87.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

ADT Price Performance

Shares of ADT stock traded up $0.02 on Tuesday, hitting $6.97. 255,861 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,892,617. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.93 and a beta of 1.53. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $7.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $7.14. ADT has a 1-year low of $5.53 and a 1-year high of $7.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.98.

ADT (NYSE:ADT) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The security and automation business reported $0.17 earnings per share 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 return on equity of 15.45% and a net margin of 13.83%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.15 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that ADT will post 0.62 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ADT Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 4th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a dividend of $0.055 per share. This represents a $0.22 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. ADT’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.