Essex Financial Services Inc. Purchases 29 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Essex Financial Services Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 0.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 8,123 shares of the software company’s stock after acquiring an additional 29 shares during the period. Essex Financial Services Inc.’s holdings in Adobe were worth $4,846,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. One Charles Private Wealth Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Adobe by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter. One Charles Private Wealth Services LLC now owns 785 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $400,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares during the last quarter. Invst LLC lifted its stake in shares of Adobe by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Invst LLC now owns 915 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $467,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Adobe by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 559 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $285,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. Lantz Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of Adobe by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 689 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $411,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. Finally, B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management lifted its stake in shares of Adobe by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management now owns 417 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. 81.79% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ADBE has been the subject of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird decreased their target price on shares of Adobe from $590.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 15th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Adobe from $600.00 to $540.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 15th. BMO Capital Markets reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $610.00 target price on shares of Adobe in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Adobe in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Adobe from $650.00 to $640.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Adobe presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $620.72.

Adobe Trading Up 1.7 %

ADBE stock traded up $7.65 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $470.48. 1,223,805 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,460,086. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $210.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.25, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.28. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $512.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $563.44. Adobe Inc. has a 12-month low of $331.89 and a 12-month high of $638.25.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.38 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $5.18 billion during 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%. Adobe’s revenue was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.97 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Adobe Inc. will post 14.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Adobe announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, March 14th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software company to buy up to 10.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at Adobe

In related news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total value of $45,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,128 shares in the company, valued at $1,940,160. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total value of $45,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,128 shares in the company, valued at $1,940,160. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Anil Chakravarthy sold 100 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.00, for a total transaction of $47,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 33,609 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,829,839. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 293 shares of company stock worth $137,656. Corporate insiders own 0.15% 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.