Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at StockNews.com

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Wednesday.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on ADBE. Mizuho cut their target price on Adobe from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Adobe from $640.00 to $605.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Adobe from $550.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Adobe from $700.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of Adobe to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 16th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $584.88.

Adobe Price Performance

Adobe stock opened at $437.39 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The stock has a market cap of $192.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $501.44 and a two-hundred day moving average of $522.60. Adobe has a 1 year low of $433.97 and a 1 year high of $638.25.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 11th. The software company reported $4.81 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.67 by $0.14. Adobe had a return on equity of 45.22% and a net margin of 25.85%. The firm had revenue of $5.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.54 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $3.52 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Adobe will post 16.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Adobe

In other news, CEO Shantanu Narayen sold 25,000 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction on 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. The trade was a 6.53 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Scott Belsky sold 481 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $483.42, for a total transaction of $232,525.02. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 18,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,763,437.76. The trade was a 2.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 28,293 shares of company stock valued at $14,719,309. Corporate insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. 1ST Source Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Adobe by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. 1ST Source Bank now owns 2,889 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $1,496,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Adobe by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 2,436 shares of the software company’s stock worth $1,261,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the period. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in Adobe in the third quarter valued at $14,622,000. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. grew its position in Adobe by 9.1% during the third quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 5,714 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $2,959,000 after acquiring an additional 475 shares during the period. Finally, American Trust acquired a new stake in Adobe during the third quarter worth about $1,057,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Company Profile

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.