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

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on ADBE shares. StockNews.com upgraded Adobe from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Piper Sandler decreased their target price on Adobe from $635.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Adobe from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. BNP Paribas upgraded Adobe from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Adobe in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Adobe presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $573.00.

Adobe Price Performance

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

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Adobe

In other news, CAO Jillian Forusz sold 676 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $484.97, for a total transaction of $327,839.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,316,693.55. This represents a 19.94 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Amy Banse sold 606 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $550.00, for a total value 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 1,763 shares of company stock valued at $893,665 in the last ninety days. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Adobe

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in shares of Adobe by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,712,616 shares of the software company’s stock worth $765,094,000 after purchasing an additional 33,414 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its position in shares of Adobe by 12.2% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in shares of Adobe by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,458 shares of the software company’s stock worth $3,344,000 after buying an additional 1,412 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Adobe by 201.0% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 117,383 shares of the software company’s stock worth $60,779,000 after buying an additional 78,384 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Adobe by 33.0% during the 3rd quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 8,519 shares of the software company’s stock worth $4,411,000 after buying an additional 2,113 shares during the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.