Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Stock Rating Reaffirmed by Royal Bank of Canada

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $630.00 price objective on the software company’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective points to a potential upside of 24.85% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. 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. TheStreet lowered shares of Adobe from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 19th. Bank of America lowered their price target on shares of Adobe from $700.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. HSBC lowered their price target on shares of Adobe from $557.00 to $511.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, KeyCorp started coverage on shares of Adobe in a report on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $445.00 price objective for the company. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $620.72.

Adobe Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of ADBE opened at $504.60 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $228.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.27, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a current ratio of 1.05. Adobe has a fifty-two week low of $331.89 and a fifty-two week high of $638.25. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $571.55 and a 200-day moving average price of $571.10.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.38 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $5.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.14 billion. Adobe had a net margin of 24.08% and a return on equity of 39.12%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.97 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Adobe will post 14.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Adobe announced that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Thursday, March 14th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the software company to reacquire up to 10.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $615.42, for a total transaction of $484,950.96. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,495,528.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 788 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $615.42, for a total transaction of $484,950.96. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,495,528.10. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Scott Belsky sold 2,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $601.71, for a total transaction of $1,318,346.61. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,144,998.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 9,162 shares of company stock worth $5,340,250. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Adobe

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in ADBE. VELA Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Adobe by 122.2% during the 1st quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 1,958 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $892,000 after buying an additional 1,077 shares in the last quarter. Bornite Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Adobe in the first quarter valued at $15,947,000. United Bank grew its holdings in shares of Adobe by 34.7% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 2,109 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $961,000 after purchasing an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Adobe by 21.0% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 525,897 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $239,609,000 after purchasing an additional 91,328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC grew its holdings in shares of Adobe by 138.3% in the first quarter. Ergoteles LLC now owns 6,651 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $3,030,000 after purchasing an additional 3,860 shares in the last quarter. 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.