Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Shares Down 2.8% Following Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) traded down 2.8% during trading on Friday after UBS Group lowered their price target on the stock from $525.00 to $475.00. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Adobe traded as low as $425.32 and last traded at $428.52. 2,065,248 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 5% from the average session volume of 2,173,014 shares. The stock had previously closed at $441.00.

Several other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Adobe in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays cut their price objective on Adobe from $675.00 to $645.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Adobe from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. DA Davidson dropped their price target on shares of Adobe from $685.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on shares of Adobe from $640.00 to $605.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $582.96.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Amy Banse sold 606 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $550.00, for a total transaction of $333,300.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 32,929 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,110,950. This trade represents a 1.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Scott Belsky sold 481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $483.42, for a total transaction of $232,525.02. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 18,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,763,437.76. This represents a 2.58 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,293 shares of company stock valued at $1,679,809 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Piscataqua Savings Bank increased its position in shares of Adobe by 226.7% during the third quarter. Piscataqua Savings Bank now owns 49 shares of the software company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new position in Adobe in the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Groupama Asset Managment raised its stake in shares of Adobe by 28.8% in the 3rd quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 51,482 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 11,522 shares during the period. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Adobe in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Adobe by 141.7% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 58 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Adobe Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $188.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.56, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.29. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $492.21 and a 200-day moving average of $521.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 11th. The software company reported $4.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.67 by $0.14. Adobe had a net margin of 25.85% and a return on equity of 45.22%. The firm had revenue of $5.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.52 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Adobe Inc. will post 16.73 EPS for the current year.

Adobe Company Profile

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.