Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Grows Position in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. grew its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 22.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 7,499 shares of the software company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,372 shares during the period. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in Adobe were worth $4,474,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ADBE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $660.00 price objective on shares of Adobe in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. TheStreet lowered shares of Adobe from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price 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. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $590.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price objective on Adobe from $700.00 to $630.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Adobe has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $620.72.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Adobe news, insider Anil Chakravarthy sold 100 shares of the company’s 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, insider Anil Chakravarthy sold 100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.00, for a total transaction of $47,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 33,609 shares in the company, valued at $15,829,839. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Scott Belsky sold 2,713 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 21,114 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,014,370.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 3,006 shares of company stock worth $1,424,432. 0.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Adobe Stock Up 2.0 %

NASDAQ ADBE traded up $9.61 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $486.18. 2,833,186 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,940,603. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The company has a market capitalization of $217.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.58 and a beta of 1.28. The company’s 50-day moving average is $509.68 and its two-hundred day moving average is $562.19. Adobe Inc. has a one year low of $331.89 and a one year high of $638.25.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 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 business had revenue of $5.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $2.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Adobe Inc. will post 14.55 EPS 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.

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.