Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by JMP Securities

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE)‘s stock had its “market perform” rating reaffirmed by analysts at JMP Securities in a research report issued on Thursday, Benzinga reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on ADBE. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on shares of Adobe from $590.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 15th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Adobe from $650.00 to $640.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Adobe from $610.00 to $675.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 12th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Adobe from $700.00 to $630.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $685.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $620.72.

Adobe Price Performance

NASDAQ ADBE traded down $0.13 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $504.27. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 926,763 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,630,803. The firm has a market capitalization of $228.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.34. Adobe has a 1-year low of $331.89 and a 1-year high of $638.25. The company’s 50-day moving average is $573.39 and its two-hundred day moving average is $571.57.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.38 by $0.10. Adobe had a net margin of 24.08% and a return on equity of 39.12%. The company had revenue of $5.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.97 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts predict that Adobe will post 14.57 EPS for the current year.

Adobe announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 14th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software company to purchase up to 10.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Adobe

In related news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.99, for a total transaction of $49,727.16. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at $2,400,519.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.99, for a total value of $49,727.16. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at $2,400,519.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider David Wadhwani sold 6,099 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $571.77, for a total transaction of $3,487,225.23. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,614 shares in the company, valued at $4,353,456.78. 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. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Adobe

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Adobe during the 4th quarter valued at about $3,277,785,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Adobe by 115,991.0% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,248,225 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $1,093,125,000 after acquiring an additional 3,245,427 shares in the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management grew its stake in Adobe by 17,006.8% during the 3rd quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 2,161,614 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $1,102,207,000 after acquiring an additional 2,148,978 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Adobe by 1,213.5% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,024,438 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $1,207,780,000 after acquiring an additional 1,870,307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its stake in Adobe by 17.7% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,804,275 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $3,299,433,000 after acquiring an additional 1,471,861 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Company Profile

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.