Evercore ISI Reiterates “Outperform” Rating for Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by analysts at Evercore ISI in a report released on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $650.00 price target on the software company’s stock. Evercore ISI’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 28.81% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms also recently weighed in on ADBE. DA Davidson restated a “buy” rating and issued a $685.00 price objective on shares of Adobe in a report on Friday, March 15th. Barclays cut their target price on Adobe from $700.00 to $630.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their target price on Adobe from $650.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Adobe from $690.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Adobe from $600.00 to $570.00 and set a “neutral” 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 assigned a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Adobe currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $620.72.

Adobe Stock Performance

ADBE stock opened at $504.60 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $571.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $571.10. The company has a market capitalization of $228.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.27, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.29. Adobe has a 1-year low of $331.89 and a 1-year high of $638.25.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.38 by $0.10. The firm 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 quarterly revenue was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.97 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Adobe will post 14.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Adobe declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, March 14th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software company to purchase up to 10.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Adobe

In other Adobe news, insider David Wadhwani sold 6,099 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 7,614 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,353,456.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Adobe news, insider David Wadhwani sold 6,099 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 directly owns 7,614 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,353,456.78. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 788 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $615.42, for a total value of $484,950.96. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,495,528.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 9,162 shares of company stock valued at $5,340,250. 0.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ADBE. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Adobe during the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,277,785,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Adobe by 115,991.0% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 3,248,225 shares of the software company’s stock worth $1,093,125,000 after purchasing an additional 3,245,427 shares in the last quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management increased its position in shares of Adobe by 17,006.8% during the third quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 2,161,614 shares of the software company’s stock worth $1,102,207,000 after purchasing an additional 2,148,978 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of 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 worth $1,207,780,000 after purchasing an additional 1,870,307 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased its position in shares of Adobe by 17.7% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 9,804,275 shares of the software company’s stock worth $3,299,433,000 after purchasing an additional 1,471,861 shares in the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.