ADT (NYSE:ADT) Rating Lowered to Strong Sell at Zacks Research

ADT (NYSE:ADT) was downgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report issued on Tuesday, Zacks reports.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. BTIG Research began coverage on ADT in a research note on Monday, August 17th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded ADT from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 29th. Barclays raised shares of ADT from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $10.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of ADT from $7.75 to $7.25 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, ADT currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $8.73.

ADT Stock Performance

ADT stock opened at $9.91 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.80. The firm has a market cap of $7.24 billion, a PE ratio of 13.40 and a beta of 0.95. The business has a 50 day moving average of $7.37 and a 200-day moving average of $7.16. ADT has a 12-month low of $6.03 and a 12-month high of $9.99.

ADT (NYSE:ADT) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 3rd. The security and automation business reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.23 by $0.01. ADT had a return on equity of 18.57% and a net margin of 11.85%. The business had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.32 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.23 earnings per share. ADT’s quarterly revenue was up 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that ADT will post 0.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On ADT

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in ADT during the second quarter valued at about $34,130,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of ADT by 9.7% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 39,887,288 shares of the security and automation business’s stock worth $262,054,000 after purchasing an additional 3,529,422 shares in the last quarter. Pine Valley Investments Ltd Liability Co purchased a new position in shares of ADT in the first quarter worth about $16,871,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of ADT by 17,352.6% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 2,462,039 shares of the security and automation business’s stock valued at $16,176,000 after purchasing an additional 2,447,932 shares during the period. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of ADT by 191.1% in the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 3,637,287 shares of the security and automation business’s stock valued at $23,897,000 after purchasing an additional 2,387,826 shares during the period. 87.22% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

ADT Company Profile

ADT Inc. provides professionally monitored security, automation and smart-home services to residential customers and businesses in the United States. Its offerings include intrusion detection, video surveillance, fire and life-safety systems, and remote monitoring and control through connected devices and mobile apps. The company also serves commercial customers with security solutions such as access control, video surveillance and fire protection. ADT provides installation, maintenance and monitoring services, with offerings tailored to homes, small businesses and larger organizations.