Ballast Advisors LLC Purchases 344 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Ballast Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 28.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,539 shares of the software company’s stock after purchasing an additional 344 shares during the quarter. Ballast Advisors LLC’s holdings in Adobe were worth $918,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Adobe in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. HBC Financial Services PLLC bought a new stake in shares of Adobe in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates increased its stake in shares of Adobe by 57.6% in the 3rd quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 52 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Financial Freedom LLC bought a new stake in shares of Adobe in the 4th quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Fortis Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Adobe in the 4th quarter valued at $35,000. Institutional investors own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Adobe

In related news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.99, for a total value of $49,727.16. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,400,519.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 788 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $615.42, for a total transaction of $484,950.96. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at $2,495,528.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $591.99, for a total value of $49,727.16. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at $2,400,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 3,063 shares of company stock worth $1,853,025. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ADBE has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Adobe from $650.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $630.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Adobe in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of Adobe from $650.00 to $640.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $650.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $620.72.

Adobe Trading Down 2.1 %

Shares of Adobe stock opened at $474.09 on Monday. Adobe Inc. has a 52-week low of $331.89 and a 52-week high of $638.25. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $541.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $568.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $212.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.38 by $0.10. Adobe had a return on equity of 39.12% and a net margin of 24.08%. The business had revenue of $5.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $2.97 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Adobe Inc. will post 14.55 EPS for the current year.

Adobe announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback 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 purchase up to 10.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is 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.