Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Shares Down 0.4%

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)’s stock price traded down 0.4% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $503.59 and last traded at $505.21. 585,619 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 3,629,850 shares. The stock had previously closed at $507.23.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ADBE. BNP Paribas lowered Adobe from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $499.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, January 18th. HSBC cut their target price on shares of Adobe from $557.00 to $511.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $660.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Adobe from $600.00 to $540.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on Adobe from $700.00 to $630.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $620.72.

Adobe Trading Down 0.6 %

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $573.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $571.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $228.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.29.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.38 by $0.10. Adobe had a return on equity of 39.12% and a net margin of 24.08%. The company had revenue of $5.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $2.97 EPS. Adobe’s revenue was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Adobe Inc. will post 14.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Adobe declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, March 14th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the software company to buy up to 10.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Adobe

In other news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 2,191 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $601.71, for a total value of $1,318,346.61. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,144,998.68. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider David Wadhwani sold 6,099 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $571.77, for a total transaction of $3,487,225.23. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,614 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,353,456.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Scott Belsky sold 2,191 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $601.71, for a total value of $1,318,346.61. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 23,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,144,998.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,162 shares of company stock worth $5,340,250 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Adobe

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. VELA Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Adobe by 122.2% in the 1st quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 1,958 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $892,000 after acquiring an additional 1,077 shares during the period. Bornite Capital Management LP purchased a new position in Adobe during the 1st quarter worth $15,947,000. United Bank increased its stake in Adobe by 34.7% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 2,109 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $961,000 after purchasing an additional 543 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Adobe by 21.0% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 525,897 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $239,609,000 after buying an additional 91,328 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC grew its holdings in shares of Adobe by 138.3% during the first quarter. Ergoteles LLC now owns 6,651 shares of the software company’s stock worth $3,030,000 after buying an additional 3,860 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

About Adobe

Adobe Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified software company worldwide. It operates through three segments: Digital Media, Digital Experience, and Publishing and Advertising. The Digital Media segment offers products, services, and solutions that enable individuals, teams, and enterprises to create, publish, and promote content; and Document Cloud, a unified cloud-based document services platform.