Castleark Management LLC Reduces Stock Position in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Castleark Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 1.8% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 23,130 shares of the software company’s stock after selling 424 shares during the quarter. Castleark Management LLC’s holdings in Adobe were worth $11,976,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Adobe by 411.7% in the 3rd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 45,738 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $23,682,000 after acquiring an additional 36,799 shares during the last quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC grew its stake in Adobe by 0.9% in the third quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 4,732 shares of the software company’s stock worth $2,450,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares in the last quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Adobe by 55.9% in the 3rd quarter. Virtus Investment Advisers Inc. now owns 837 shares of the software company’s stock worth $433,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Wahed Invest LLC grew its position in shares of Adobe by 7.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 10,619 shares of the software company’s stock worth $5,498,000 after buying an additional 697 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Adobe during the third quarter valued at $7,436,000. Institutional investors own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Stock Up 2.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ADBE opened at $552.96 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The stock has a market cap of $243.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.70, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.29. Adobe Inc. has a 1-year low of $433.97 and a 1-year high of $638.25. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $503.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $521.19.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 12th. The software company reported $4.65 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.53 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $5.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.37 billion. Adobe had a return on equity of 42.82% and a net margin of 25.59%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.26 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Adobe Inc. will post 14.82 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on ADBE shares. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their target price on shares of Adobe from $660.00 to $644.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, September 13th. Argus raised Adobe to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 16th. Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $640.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a report on Friday, September 13th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $625.00 target price on shares of Adobe in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Adobe in a report on Friday, September 13th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Adobe currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $602.08.

Insider Activity at Adobe

In related news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 1,530 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $513.82, for a total transaction of $786,144.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 18,831 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,675,744.42. This represents a 7.51 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Daniel Durn sold 6,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $515.44, for a total value of $3,350,360.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 20,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,740,738.72. This trade represents a 23.78 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 34,187 shares of company stock worth $17,736,369 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

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.