Ethos Financial Group LLC Acquires 135 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Ethos Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 32.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 551 shares of the software company’s stock after buying an additional 135 shares during the quarter. Ethos Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Adobe were worth $329,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. HBC Financial Services PLLC purchased a new position in shares of Adobe during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in Adobe in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Hanseatic Management Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Adobe during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $45,000. First Command Advisory Services Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Adobe in the third quarter valued at $52,000. Finally, Advisors Preferred LLC bought a new stake in Adobe in the third quarter worth $60,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Stock Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ ADBE traded down $5.45 during trading on Thursday, reaching $482.65. 2,300,457 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,404,949. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $504.52 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $560.49. Adobe Inc. has a 12-month low of $331.89 and a 12-month high of $638.25. The firm has a market cap of $216.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.38 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $5.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. Adobe had a net margin of 24.08% and a return on equity of 39.12%. Adobe’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $2.97 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Adobe Inc. will post 14.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total value of $45,120.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,940,160. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total value of $45,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,940,160. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Scott Belsky sold 2,713 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $474.30, for a total value of $1,286,775.90. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 21,114 shares in the company, valued at $10,014,370.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 3,006 shares of company stock worth $1,424,432 in the last three months. 0.15% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on ADBE. HSBC lowered their price objective on shares of Adobe from $557.00 to $511.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 15th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Adobe in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Adobe from $600.00 to $540.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. BNP Paribas lowered Adobe from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $499.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $650.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $620.72.

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.