Adobe’s (ADBE) “Outperform” Rating Reaffirmed at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI restated their outperform rating on shares of Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $650.00 price objective on the software company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on ADBE. Royal Bank of Canada restated an outperform rating and issued a $630.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a research report on Wednesday. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Adobe from $650.00 to $625.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 15th. BMO Capital Markets restated an outperform rating and set a $610.00 price objective on shares of Adobe in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group cut their price objective on Adobe from $600.00 to $540.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Adobe from $610.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Adobe presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $620.72.

Adobe Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ADBE opened at $504.40 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $573.39 and a 200-day moving average of $571.57. Adobe has a 12 month low of $331.89 and a 12 month high of $638.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $228.27 billion, a PE ratio of 48.26, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.29.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.38 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $5.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. Adobe had a return on equity of 39.12% and a net margin of 24.08%. Adobe’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $2.97 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Adobe will post 14.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Adobe announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Thursday, March 14th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software company to buy up to 10.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider David Wadhwani sold 6,099 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $571.77, for a total transaction of $3,487,225.23. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,614 shares in the company, valued at $4,353,456.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, insider David Wadhwani sold 6,099 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $571.77, for a total transaction of $3,487,225.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,614 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,353,456.78. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.99, for a total value of $49,727.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,400,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 9,162 shares of company stock worth $5,340,250 in the last quarter. 0.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Adobe

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Adobe by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,266,172 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $24,022,798,000 after buying an additional 603,302 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Adobe by 1.2% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 18,862,098 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $9,223,377,000 after acquiring an additional 229,776 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley raised its position in Adobe by 2.7% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,371,262 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $5,288,309,000 after purchasing an additional 277,484 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its stake in Adobe by 10.0% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 6,497,332 shares of the software company’s stock worth $3,876,309,000 after purchasing an additional 590,533 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Adobe in the 4th quarter worth about $3,277,785,000. 81.79% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.