Empirical Asset Management LLC Acquires 247 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Empirical Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 60.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 657 shares of the software company’s stock after purchasing an additional 247 shares during the quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Adobe were worth $392,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ADBE. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Adobe by 1.2% in 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 boosted its stake in Adobe by 2.7% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,371,262 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $5,288,309,000 after buying an additional 277,484 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Adobe by 3.2% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,762,185 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $4,762,147,000 after buying an additional 301,062 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Adobe by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,358,515 shares of the software company’s stock worth $2,732,307,000 after acquiring an additional 202,136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Adobe in the fourth quarter valued at $1,757,029,000. 80.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Adobe

In related news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 788 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $615.42, for a total value of $484,950.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,495,528.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $615.42, for a total value of $484,950.96. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at $2,495,528.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Daniel Durn sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $596.94, for a total transaction of $1,790,820.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 18,716 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,172,329.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 44,162 shares of company stock worth $26,276,030 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Stock Performance

NASDAQ ADBE traded down $7.89 on Thursday, hitting $511.25. 5,203,647 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,641,676. The firm has a market capitalization of $231.36 billion, a PE ratio of 48.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 1.29. Adobe Inc. has a 1-year low of $331.89 and a 1-year high of $638.25. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $580.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $573.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.38 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $5.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.14 billion. Adobe had a net margin of 24.08% and a return on equity of 39.12%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.97 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Adobe Inc. will post 14.55 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Adobe from $690.00 to $660.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 15th. TheStreet lowered shares of Adobe from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Adobe from $690.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 15th. BNP Paribas lowered Adobe from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $499.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price target on Adobe from $600.00 to $540.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Adobe presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $620.72.

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.