Stock Traders Buy Large Volume of Adobe Call Options (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 29,648 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 14% compared to the average daily volume of 26,034 call options.

Adobe Trading Up 3.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ADBE opened at $536.49 on Thursday. Adobe has a 12-month low of $433.97 and a 12-month high of $638.25. The company has a market capitalization of $236.16 billion, a PE ratio of 45.31, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.29. The business has a 50 day moving average of $502.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $521.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 12th. The software company reported $4.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.53 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $5.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.37 billion. Adobe had a return on equity of 42.82% and a net margin of 25.59%. Adobe’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $3.26 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Adobe will post 14.82 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Adobe

In other Adobe news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 481 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $483.42, for a total value of $232,525.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 18,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,763,437.76. The trade was a 2.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Shantanu Narayen sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $521.58, for a total transaction of $13,039,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 357,700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $186,569,166. This represents a 6.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 34,187 shares of company stock worth $17,736,369 over the last three months. 0.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Adobe in the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Piscataqua Savings Bank grew its holdings in Adobe by 226.7% in the 3rd quarter. Piscataqua Savings Bank now owns 49 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. purchased a new stake in Adobe in the 3rd quarter valued at $30,000. True Wealth Design LLC grew its holdings in Adobe by 141.7% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 58 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC purchased a new stake in Adobe in the 2nd quarter valued at $33,000. 81.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Adobe from $560.00 to $550.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 13th. Argus upgraded Adobe to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price target on Adobe from $660.00 to $644.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 13th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Adobe in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Adobe from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Adobe presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $601.25.

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.