Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Reaches New 1-Year Low on Analyst Downgrade

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)’s stock price hit a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $580.00 to $540.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Adobe traded as low as $389.11 and last traded at $393.38, with a volume of 2541108 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $438.60.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on ADBE. Citigroup dropped their price target on Adobe from $551.00 to $490.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 10th. DA Davidson dropped their target price on Adobe from $685.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Adobe from $650.00 to $550.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com lowered shares of Adobe from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, TD Cowen downgraded shares of Adobe from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $625.00 to $550.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $539.46.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Adobe news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 3,819 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $430.24, for a total value of $1,643,086.56. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 18,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,888,020.16. This represents a 17.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director David A. Ricks acquired 2,250 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $443.98 per share, with a total value of $998,955.00. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 4,984 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,212,796.32. This represents a 82.30 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,075 shares of company stock valued at $2,191,826 over the last ninety days. 0.16% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Adobe by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,712,616 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $765,094,000 after purchasing an additional 33,414 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System boosted its position in shares of Adobe by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 127,696 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $56,784,000 after buying an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its holdings in Adobe by 12.2% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 19,322 shares of the software company’s stock worth $10,005,000 after buying an additional 2,100 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. raised its position in Adobe by 201.0% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 117,383 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $60,779,000 after buying an additional 78,384 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc raised its position in Adobe by 33.0% in the 3rd quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 8,519 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $4,411,000 after buying an additional 2,113 shares during the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Adobe Trading Up 4.5 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $171.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.83, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.37. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $437.03 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $482.65.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 12th. The software company reported $5.08 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.97 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $5.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.66 billion. Adobe had a net margin of 25.85% and a return on equity of 45.87%. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $4.48 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Adobe Inc. will post 16.65 earnings per share for the current year.

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.