Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) has received an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty-seven research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have assigned a hold recommendation, seventeen have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $606.40.

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ADBE shares. UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Adobe from $560.00 to $550.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their target price on shares of Adobe from $660.00 to $644.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, September 13th. Argus upgraded shares of Adobe to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Adobe from $550.00 to $621.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. Finally, JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Adobe in a research report on Friday, September 13th.

Adobe Stock Performance

NASDAQ ADBE opened at $499.61 on Wednesday. Adobe has a 52-week low of $433.97 and a 52-week high of $638.25. The company has a fifty day moving average of $506.89 and a 200-day moving average of $518.95. The company has a market capitalization of $219.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.20, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, September 12th. The software company reported $4.65 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.53 by $0.12. Adobe had a net margin of 25.59% and a return on equity of 42.82%. The company had revenue of $5.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.26 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Adobe will post 14.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Daniel Durn sold 6,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $515.44, for a total transaction of $3,350,360.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,838 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,740,738.72. This represents a 23.78 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Scott Belsky sold 481 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $483.42, for a total value of $232,525.02. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 18,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,763,437.76. This trade represents a 2.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 34,187 shares of company stock worth $17,736,369 in the last 90 days. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Adobe

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Piscataqua Savings Bank grew its stake in Adobe by 226.7% during the 3rd quarter. Piscataqua Savings Bank now owns 49 shares of the software company’s stock worth $25,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the last quarter. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Adobe during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Groupama Asset Managment raised its holdings in shares of Adobe by 28.8% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 51,482 shares of the software company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 11,522 shares during the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Adobe during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC raised its stake in Adobe by 141.7% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 58 shares of the software company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 34 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.