Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) Shares Purchased by Scharf Investments LLC

Scharf Investments LLC increased its holdings in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 4.4% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 4,441 shares of the software company’s stock after buying an additional 187 shares during the period. Scharf Investments LLC’s holdings in Adobe were worth $2,241,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Adobe in the fourth quarter worth $3,277,785,000. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in Adobe by 1,213.5% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,024,438 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $1,207,780,000 after purchasing an additional 1,870,307 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Adobe in the fourth quarter valued at $875,592,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Adobe by 10.0% during the 4th 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 period. Finally, Putnam Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Adobe by 41.2% during the 4th quarter. Putnam Investments LLC now owns 1,053,424 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $628,473,000 after buying an additional 307,479 shares during the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on ADBE shares. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $685.00 target price on shares of Adobe in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. HSBC dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $557.00 to $511.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Adobe from $525.00 to $545.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 14th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on shares of Adobe from $653.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Adobe from $625.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Adobe presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $607.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at Adobe

In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total transaction of $45,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,940,160. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other 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 value of $47,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 33,609 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,829,839. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total value of $45,120.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,940,160. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,270 shares of company stock worth $1,563,166 in the last three months. 0.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Adobe Price Performance

NASDAQ ADBE traded up $18.10 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $546.76. 4,733,061 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,578,013. The company has a market capitalization of $244.95 billion, a PE ratio of 49.00, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.16 and a quick ratio of 1.05. Adobe Inc. has a 52-week low of $433.97 and a 52-week high of $638.25. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $481.75 and its 200-day moving average is $535.99.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, June 13th. The software company reported $4.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.39 by $0.09. Adobe had a return on equity of 40.67% and a net margin of 24.86%. The business had revenue of $5.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.29 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.04 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Adobe Inc. will post 14.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Adobe announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, March 14th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software company to repurchase up to 10.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.