RNC Capital Management LLC Boosts Stake in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

RNC Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 16,086 shares of the software company’s stock after buying an additional 278 shares during the quarter. RNC Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Adobe were worth $9,597,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Columbia Trust Co 01012016 raised its stake in Adobe by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. Columbia Trust Co 01012016 now owns 2,684 shares of the software company’s stock worth $1,601,000 after purchasing an additional 355 shares during the period. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in Adobe by 42.2% during the fourth quarter. Tandem Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 627 shares of the software company’s stock worth $374,000 after purchasing an additional 186 shares during the period. Kozak & Associates Inc. raised its stake in Adobe by 5.0% during the fourth quarter. Kozak & Associates Inc. now owns 1,118 shares of the software company’s stock worth $668,000 after purchasing an additional 53 shares during the period. Trust Co of the South purchased a new stake in shares of Adobe in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $228,000. Finally, Sandy Cove Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Adobe by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. Sandy Cove Advisors LLC now owns 773 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $461,000 after acquiring an additional 129 shares during the period. 81.79% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Adobe Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of Adobe stock opened at $504.40 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $573.39 and a 200-day simple moving average of $571.57. Adobe Inc. has a 12-month low of $331.89 and a 12-month high of $638.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a market cap of $228.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.26, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.29.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.38 by $0.10. Adobe had a net margin of 24.08% and a return on equity of 39.12%. The firm had revenue of $5.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $2.97 EPS. Adobe’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Adobe Inc. will post 14.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Adobe declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at Adobe

In related news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 2,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $601.71, for a total value of $1,318,346.61. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 23,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,144,998.68. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Adobe news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 2,191 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,144,998.68. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider David Wadhwani sold 6,099 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $571.77, for a total transaction of $3,487,225.23. Following 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 a total of 9,162 shares of company stock worth $5,340,250 in the last 90 days. 0.15% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on ADBE. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $685.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a research note on Friday, March 15th. HSBC reduced their price target on shares of Adobe from $557.00 to $511.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Mizuho reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $680.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a research note on Wednesday. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $660.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $600.00 to $570.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and twenty-one have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $620.72.

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.