J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Raises Stake in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 7.0% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 4,135 shares of the software company’s stock after buying an additional 270 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Adobe were worth $2,083,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Barlow Wealth Partners Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Adobe during the 4th quarter valued at about $16,700,000. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Adobe by 22.6% in the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 223,667 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $133,440,000 after purchasing an additional 41,164 shares during the period. Mainsail Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Adobe by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Mainsail Financial Group LLC now owns 2,100 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $1,252,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the period. Vise Technologies Inc. raised its stake in Adobe by 267.3% during the fourth quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 7,769 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $4,635,000 after buying an additional 5,654 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Steph & Co. raised its stake in Adobe by 63.8% during the first quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 77 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded Adobe from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $570.00 to $580.00 in a research note on Friday, June 14th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Adobe from $525.00 to $580.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Adobe from $625.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on Adobe from $653.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on Adobe from $554.00 to $529.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, June 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and twenty-two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $607.67.

Adobe Price Performance

NASDAQ:ADBE traded up $8.19 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $578.34. 2,807,921 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,560,779. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $492.59 and its 200 day moving average price is $534.48. The company has a market cap of $256.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.30. Adobe Inc. has a 52-week low of $433.97 and a 52-week high of $638.25.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 13th. The software company reported $4.48 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.39 by $0.09. Adobe had a return on equity of 40.67% and a net margin of 24.86%. The firm had revenue of $5.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.29 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.04 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Adobe Inc. will post 14.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Activity at Adobe

In other Adobe news, insider Anil Chakravarthy sold 100 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,609 shares in the company, valued at $15,829,839. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider Anil Chakravarthy sold 100 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.00, for a total value of $47,100.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 33,609 shares in the company, valued at $15,829,839. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Shantanu Narayen sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $544.11, for a total value of $13,602,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 379,660 shares in the company, valued at $206,576,802.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 28,270 shares of company stock worth $15,165,916. 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.