National Pension Service Reduces Holdings in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

National Pension Service reduced its stake in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 0.2% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 876,955 shares of the software company’s stock after selling 1,840 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in Adobe were worth $389,964,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC purchased a new position in Adobe in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Groupama Asset Managment increased its position in Adobe by 28.8% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 51,482 shares of the software company’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 11,522 shares during the period. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Adobe in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its position in shares of Adobe by 141.7% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 58 shares of the software company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new position in Adobe in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. 81.79% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Adobe Price Performance

ADBE opened at $443.41 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market cap of $193.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.31. Adobe Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $403.75 and a fifty-two week high of $587.75. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $439.88 and its 200 day moving average price is $492.62.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $5.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.54 billion. Adobe had a return on equity of 45.87% and a net margin of 25.85%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $3.52 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Adobe Inc. will post 16.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Adobe

In other Adobe news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 922 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $437.28, for a total transaction of $403,172.16. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 22,153 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,687,063.84. This represents a 4.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director David A. Ricks purchased 2,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was purchased at an average price of $443.98 per share, for a total transaction of $998,955.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 4,984 shares in the company, valued at $2,212,796.32. This trade represents a 82.30 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 5,681 shares of company stock worth $2,525,126. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ADBE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays cut their price objective on Adobe from $675.00 to $645.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Adobe from $525.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Adobe from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $590.00 price objective on shares of Adobe in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Oppenheimer cut their target price on shares of Adobe from $625.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating, seventeen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $570.88.

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.