Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Trading Down 0.3% After Analyst Downgrade

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)’s share price dropped 0.3% during mid-day trading on Wednesday after Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on the stock from $700.00 to $640.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Adobe traded as low as $415.51 and last traded at $421.46. Approximately 1,266,153 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 64% from the average daily volume of 3,491,808 shares. The stock had previously closed at $422.63.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the company. Barclays lowered their target price on Adobe from $675.00 to $645.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. DA Davidson cut their price objective on shares of Adobe from $685.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on shares of Adobe from $700.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of Adobe from $610.00 to $590.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus cut 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. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $575.85.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Amy Banse sold 606 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $550.00, for a total transaction of $333,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 32,929 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,110,950. This represents a 1.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible 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 value of $232,525.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 18,128 shares in the company, valued at $8,763,437.76. The trade was a 2.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 3,293 shares of company stock valued at $1,679,809 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Adobe

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its stake in Adobe by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,712,616 shares of the software company’s stock worth $765,094,000 after buying an additional 33,414 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its stake in Adobe by 12.2% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 19,322 shares of the software company’s stock worth $10,005,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Adobe by 28.0% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,458 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $3,344,000 after acquiring an additional 1,412 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Adobe by 201.0% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 117,383 shares of the software company’s stock worth $60,779,000 after purchasing an additional 78,384 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc boosted its position in Adobe by 33.0% in the third quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 8,519 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $4,411,000 after buying an additional 2,113 shares in the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Adobe Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $184.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.84, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.31. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $486.71 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $518.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11.

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

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.