Washington Trust Advisors Inc. Sells 462 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Washington Trust Advisors Inc. reduced its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 58.9% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 323 shares of the software company’s stock after selling 462 shares during the quarter. Washington Trust Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Adobe were worth $144,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ADBE. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its position in Adobe by 82,528.8% in the 4th quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,042,775 shares of the software company’s stock worth $463,701,000 after purchasing an additional 1,041,513 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in Adobe by 8.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 9,690,163 shares of the software company’s stock worth $5,017,373,000 after purchasing an additional 787,356 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Adobe in the fourth quarter valued at about $243,827,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its position in shares of Adobe by 42.3% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,168,584 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $519,646,000 after acquiring an additional 347,536 shares during the period. Finally, Seilern Investment Management Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Adobe in the fourth quarter valued at about $110,744,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Adobe

In other Adobe news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 3,819 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $430.24, for a total transaction of $1,643,086.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 18,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,888,020.16. This represents a 17.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Jillian Forusz sold 334 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $435.83, for a total transaction of $145,567.22. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,170,203.55. This represents a 11.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 5,075 shares of company stock worth $2,191,826 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on ADBE shares. TD Cowen cut shares of Adobe from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $625.00 to $550.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on shares of Adobe from $644.00 to $587.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. StockNews.com cut shares of Adobe from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Adobe from $675.00 to $645.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on shares of Adobe from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $570.88.

Adobe Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ ADBE opened at $444.78 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $439.51 and its 200-day moving average price is $488.46. The company has a market cap of $193.61 billion, a PE ratio of 35.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.37. Adobe Inc. has a 52-week low of $403.75 and a 52-week high of $587.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 11th. The software company reported $4.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.67 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $5.61 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.54 billion. Adobe had a net margin of 25.85% and a return on equity of 45.87%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.52 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Adobe Inc. will post 16.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Adobe 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.