Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Shares Up 1.7% – Still a Buy?

Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) rose 1.7% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $426.52 and last traded at $424.45. Approximately 931,867 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 76% from the average daily volume of 3,872,074 shares. The stock had previously closed at $417.28.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ADBE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Adobe from $700.00 to $640.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Mizuho dropped their target price on Adobe from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Adobe from $700.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $475.00 target price (down from $600.00) on shares of Adobe in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on Adobe from $644.00 to $587.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Adobe currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $573.00.

Adobe Stock Up 0.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $477.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $513.73. The company has a market cap of $189.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.31.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 11th. The software company reported $4.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.67 by $0.14. Adobe had a return on equity of 45.87% and a net margin of 25.85%. The company had revenue of $5.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.52 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that Adobe Inc. will post 16.65 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Amy Banse sold 606 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $550.00, for a total transaction of $333,300.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 32,929 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,110,950. This trade represents a 1.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Jillian Forusz sold 676 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $484.97, for a total value of $327,839.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,715 shares in the company, valued at $1,316,693.55. This trade represents a 19.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 1,763 shares of company stock worth $893,665 over the last 90 days. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Adobe

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ADBE. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Adobe by 20.1% in the second quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 41,818 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $23,232,000 after purchasing an additional 6,985 shares in the last quarter. Brighton Jones LLC grew its position in shares of Adobe by 1.8% in the second quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 8,126 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $4,514,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares in the last quarter. Ieq Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Adobe by 5.4% in the second quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 50,681 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $28,155,000 after purchasing an additional 2,575 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Advisors of Tampa Bay LLC grew its position in shares of Adobe by 37.8% in the second quarter. Wealth Advisors of Tampa Bay LLC now owns 4,959 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $2,755,000 after purchasing an additional 1,359 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Promethos Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Adobe by 234.8% in the second quarter. Promethos Capital LLC now owns 7,405 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $4,114,000 after purchasing an additional 5,193 shares in the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.