Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Shares Down 0.4% on Insider Selling

Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) fell 0.4% during trading on Wednesday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $474.38 and last traded at $474.39. 531,567 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 3,570,642 shares. The stock had previously closed at $476.22.

Specifically, EVP Scott Belsky sold 2,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $601.71, for a total transaction of $1,318,346.61. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,144,998.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Adobe news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 2,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $601.71, for a total value of $1,318,346.61. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,144,998.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $615.42, for a total transaction of $484,950.96. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at $2,495,528.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 3,075 shares of company stock valued at $1,848,418 over the last three months. 0.15% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ADBE shares. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Adobe from $590.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Adobe from $600.00 to $570.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 15th. KeyCorp initiated coverage on shares of Adobe in a report on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $445.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $680.00 target price on shares of Adobe in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of Adobe from $700.00 to $630.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $620.72.

Adobe Stock Down 0.5 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $530.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $566.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $211.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.28.

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

Adobe declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 14th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software company to buy up to 10.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Adobe during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. HBC Financial Services PLLC acquired a new position in shares of Adobe during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Garner Asset Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of Adobe during the 4th quarter worth about $31,000. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates increased its stake in shares of Adobe by 57.6% during the 3rd quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 52 shares of the software company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 19 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tradewinds Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Adobe by 266.7% during the 1st quarter. Tradewinds Capital Management LLC now owns 55 shares of the software company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.79% 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.