Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) Shares Bought by Ballentine Partners LLC

Ballentine Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 17.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 7,501 shares of the software company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,130 shares during the quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC’s holdings in Adobe were worth $4,475,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ADBE. State Street Corp increased its position in Adobe by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 18,862,098 shares of the software company’s stock worth $9,223,377,000 after purchasing an additional 229,776 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its position in Adobe by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,371,262 shares of the software company’s stock worth $5,288,309,000 after purchasing an additional 277,484 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in Adobe by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,358,515 shares of the software company’s stock worth $2,732,307,000 after purchasing an additional 202,136 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Adobe during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,757,029,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its position in Adobe by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,561,859 shares of the software company’s stock worth $2,326,092,000 after purchasing an additional 498,957 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $610.00 target price on shares of Adobe in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and set a $680.00 target price on shares of Adobe in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Piper Sandler Companies decreased their price target on Adobe from $705.00 to $700.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $685.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on Adobe from $700.00 to $630.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $620.72.

Adobe Stock Performance

ADBE traded down $2.20 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $497.01. 2,520,914 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,628,555. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $563.64 and a 200-day simple moving average of $569.97. Adobe Inc. has a 12 month low of $331.89 and a 12 month high of $638.25. The stock has a market cap of $222.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.38 by $0.10. Adobe had a return on equity of 39.12% and a net margin of 24.08%. The firm had revenue of $5.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.97 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Adobe Inc. will post 14.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Adobe declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 14th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software company to purchase up to 10.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.99, for a total value of $49,727.16. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,400,519.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $615.42, for a total transaction of $484,950.96. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,495,528.10. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.99, for a total value of $49,727.16. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at $2,400,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,063 shares of company stock valued at $1,853,025 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Adobe 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.