Exchange Capital Management Inc. Acquires 543 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Exchange Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 5.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,778 shares of the software company’s stock after acquiring an additional 543 shares during the quarter. Exchange Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Adobe were worth $4,934,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in ADBE. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Adobe in the 4th quarter valued at about $3,277,785,000. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Adobe by 1,213.5% during the 4th 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 last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Adobe during the 4th quarter valued at about $875,592,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of 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 valued at $3,876,309,000 after purchasing an additional 590,533 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Putnam Investments LLC increased its position 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 purchasing an additional 307,479 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on ADBE. HSBC reduced their price target on Adobe from $557.00 to $511.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Mizuho restated a “buy” rating and set a $640.00 price target (down from $680.00) on shares of Adobe in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on Adobe from $653.00 to $660.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Melius lowered Adobe from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $510.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Monday, June 10th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Adobe from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Adobe has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $607.67.

Adobe Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of ADBE stock traded up $9.36 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $569.37. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,494,183 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,568,819. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.16. Adobe Inc. has a 52-week low of $433.97 and a 52-week high of $638.25. The stock has a market cap of $252.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.75, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $485.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $534.27.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 13th. The software company reported $4.48 EPS 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 company had revenue of $5.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.29 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $3.04 earnings per share. Adobe’s revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Adobe Inc. will post 14.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Adobe announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Adobe

In other Adobe news, CEO Shantanu Narayen sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $544.11, for a total transaction of $13,602,750.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 379,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $206,576,802.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total transaction of $45,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,940,160. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Shantanu Narayen sold 25,000 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $544.11, for a total transaction of $13,602,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 379,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $206,576,802.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 28,270 shares of company stock valued at $15,165,916. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

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.