Morgan Stanley Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Stock Price

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) had its target price decreased by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $660.00 to $600.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “overweight” rating on the software company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 52.00% from the company’s current price.

ADBE has been the subject of a number of other reports. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on Adobe from $700.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Adobe from $590.00 to $550.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. DA Davidson cut their target price on Adobe from $685.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Oppenheimer cut their target price on Adobe from $560.00 to $530.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Adobe from $640.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $539.46.

Adobe Stock Up 4.5 %

NASDAQ ADBE opened at $394.74 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $437.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $482.65. Adobe has a one year low of $374.50 and a one year high of $587.75. 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 company has a market cap of $171.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.37.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 12th. The software company reported $5.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.97 by $0.11. Adobe had a return on equity of 45.87% and a net margin of 25.85%. The firm had revenue of $5.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.66 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $4.48 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Adobe will post 16.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Adobe

In other Adobe news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 3,819 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president now owns 18,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,888,020.16. This trade represents a 17.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director David A. Ricks purchased 2,250 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $443.98 per share, for a total transaction of $998,955.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,984 shares in the company, valued at $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 5,075 shares of company stock valued at $2,191,826 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Adobe

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ADBE. Swedbank AB raised its position in shares of Adobe by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 1,196,175 shares of the software company’s stock worth $619,355,000 after acquiring an additional 3,739 shares in the last quarter. United Bank increased its position in Adobe by 19.7% during the third quarter. United Bank now owns 2,596 shares of the software company’s stock worth $1,344,000 after buying an additional 428 shares during the period. Harbour Investments Inc. increased its position in Adobe by 194.1% during the third quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 3,397 shares of the software company’s stock worth $1,759,000 after buying an additional 2,242 shares during the period. Haverford Trust Co increased its position in Adobe by 0.5% during the third quarter. Haverford Trust Co now owns 5,772 shares of the software company’s stock worth $2,989,000 after buying an additional 27 shares during the period. Finally, MQS Management LLC acquired a new position in Adobe during the third quarter worth approximately $234,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.