Kesler Norman & Wride LLC Has $629,000 Stock Position in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Kesler Norman & Wride LLC reduced its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 7.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 1,247 shares of the software company’s stock after selling 103 shares during the quarter. Kesler Norman & Wride LLC’s holdings in Adobe were worth $629,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of ADBE. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Adobe in the 4th quarter worth about $3,277,785,000. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in shares of Adobe by 1,213.5% in 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 during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Adobe in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $875,592,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in shares of Adobe by 10.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,497,332 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $3,876,309,000 after acquiring an additional 590,533 shares during the period. Finally, Putnam Investments LLC increased its stake in Adobe by 41.2% during the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 1,053,424 shares of the software company’s stock worth $628,473,000 after purchasing an additional 307,479 shares in the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Adobe Stock Performance

Shares of ADBE traded down $0.25 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $569.90. 432,573 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,542,223. Adobe Inc. has a twelve month low of $433.97 and a twelve month high of $638.25. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The company has a market cap of $252.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.23, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.30. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $492.59 and its 200 day simple moving average is $534.48.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 13th. The software company reported $4.48 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.39 by $0.09. Adobe had a return on equity of 40.67% and a net margin of 24.86%. The company had revenue of $5.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.29 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $3.04 earnings per share. Adobe’s revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Adobe Inc. will post 14.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Adobe declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, March 14th that allows the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the software company to repurchase up to 10.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total value of $45,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,128 shares in the company, valued at $1,940,160. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total transaction of $45,120.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,128 shares in the company, valued at $1,940,160. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Shantanu Narayen sold 25,000 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $544.11, for a total value of $13,602,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 379,660 shares in the company, valued at $206,576,802.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 28,270 shares of company stock worth $15,165,916. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. TheStreet cut Adobe from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 19th. Melius cut shares of Adobe from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $510.00 price target for the company. in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Melius Research reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $510.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of Adobe from $653.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Adobe from $630.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and twenty-two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Adobe presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $607.67.

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.