Adobe’s (ADBE) Outperform Rating Reiterated at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $530.00 price objective on the software company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group set a $495.00 price objective on shares of Adobe in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft restated a “hold” rating and issued a $475.00 price objective (down from $600.00) on shares of Adobe in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Robert W. Baird reduced their price objective on shares of Adobe from $490.00 to $410.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Redburn Atlantic initiated coverage on shares of Adobe in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Finally, KeyCorp reduced their price objective on shares of Adobe from $450.00 to $390.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Adobe currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $538.80.

Adobe Price Performance

NASDAQ ADBE opened at $387.26 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $168.62 billion, a PE ratio of 31.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.37. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $434.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $476.46. Adobe has a 12-month low of $374.50 and a 12-month high of $587.75.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 12th. The software company reported $5.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.97 by $0.11. Adobe had a net margin of 25.85% and a return on equity of 45.87%. The firm had revenue of $5.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.66 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $4.48 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Adobe will post 16.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Adobe

In related news, CAO Jillian Forusz sold 334 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $435.83, for a total transaction of $145,567.22. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,685 shares in the company, valued at $1,170,203.55. This represents a 11.06 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Daniel Durn purchased 1,300 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 20th. The shares were bought at an average price of $390.58 per share, for a total transaction of $507,754.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 29,876 shares in the company, valued at $11,668,968.08. This represents a 4.55 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 5,075 shares of company stock valued at $2,191,826. 0.16% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in shares of Adobe by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,712,616 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $765,094,000 after acquiring an additional 33,414 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Adobe by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 127,696 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $56,784,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in shares of Adobe by 12.2% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 19,322 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $10,005,000 after acquiring an additional 2,100 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Adobe by 201.0% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 117,383 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $60,779,000 after acquiring an additional 78,384 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Morse Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Adobe by 33.0% in the 3rd quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 8,519 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $4,411,000 after acquiring an additional 2,113 shares during the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is currently 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.