Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. Decreases Stake in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Deane Retirement Strategies Inc. decreased its holdings in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 79.7% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,432 shares of the software company’s stock after selling 5,630 shares during the quarter. Deane Retirement Strategies Inc.’s holdings in Adobe were worth $854,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Rockland Trust Co. increased its stake in Adobe by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 1,106 shares of the software company’s stock worth $564,000 after buying an additional 44 shares during the period. Team Hewins LLC acquired a new position in shares of Adobe in the third quarter worth about $4,141,000. Guinness Asset Management LTD boosted its holdings in Adobe by 5.9% in the third quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 44,586 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $22,734,000 after purchasing an additional 2,499 shares during the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC grew its stake in Adobe by 23.9% during the 3rd quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 8,992 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $4,585,000 after purchasing an additional 1,732 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kranot Hishtalmut Le Morim Tichoniim Havera Menahelet LTD increased its holdings in Adobe by 36.7% during the 3rd quarter. Kranot Hishtalmut Le Morim Tichoniim Havera Menahelet LTD now owns 6,969 shares of the software company’s stock worth $3,544,000 after purchasing an additional 1,871 shares during the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,400,519.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,400,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider David Wadhwani sold 6,099 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $571.77, for a total value of $3,487,225.23. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 7,614 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,353,456.78. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,162 shares of company stock worth $5,340,250 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Trading Down 0.5 %

NASDAQ:ADBE traded down $2.59 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $501.81. 1,305,249 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,638,210. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $227.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.02, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.29. Adobe Inc. has a 12 month low of $331.89 and a 12 month high of $638.25. The company has a fifty day moving average of $573.39 and a 200 day moving average of $571.57.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.38 by $0.10. The company 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.97 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Adobe Inc. will post 14.57 EPS for the current year.

Adobe declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, March 14th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the software company to reacquire up to 10.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have weighed in on ADBE. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $660.00 price objective on shares of Adobe in a report on Wednesday. Bank of America cut their price objective on Adobe from $700.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on Adobe from $600.00 to $570.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 15th. KGI Securities upgraded shares of Adobe from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $730.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, December 4th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of Adobe from $650.00 to $640.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $620.72.

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.