Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. reduced its position in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 0.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 1,364,060 shares of the software company’s stock after selling 2,518 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. owned 0.30% of Adobe worth $688,305,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in ADBE. Invst LLC lifted its holdings in Adobe by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Invst LLC now owns 915 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $467,000 after buying an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Adobe by 3.1% during the third quarter. Raleigh Capital Management Inc. now owns 559 shares of the software company’s stock worth $285,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares during the period. Lantz Financial LLC raised its stake in shares of Adobe by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 689 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $411,000 after acquiring an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management boosted its holdings in shares of Adobe by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. B & T Capital Management DBA Alpha Capital Management now owns 417 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $249,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares during the period. Finally, Evolution Advisers Inc. grew its stake in Adobe by 14.3% in the fourth quarter. Evolution Advisers Inc. now owns 136 shares of the software company’s stock worth $79,000 after purchasing an additional 17 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Shantanu Narayen sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $544.11, for a total value of $13,602,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 379,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $206,576,802.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 97 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $468.41, for a total value of $45,435.77. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,933,596.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Shantanu Narayen sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $544.11, for a total transaction of $13,602,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 379,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $206,576,802.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 28,270 shares of company stock worth $15,165,916. Corporate insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on ADBE. TD Cowen decreased their target price on Adobe from $640.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 10th. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Adobe from $600.00 to $540.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. Mizuho reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $640.00 target price (down from $680.00) on shares of Adobe in a report on Friday, June 7th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Adobe from $525.00 to $580.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, June 14th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Adobe from $630.00 to $650.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and twenty-one have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $607.67.

Adobe Stock Performance

Shares of Adobe stock traded down $0.43 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $567.28. 304,819 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,556,004. The stock has a market capitalization of $251.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.01, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.30. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $486.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $534.09. Adobe Inc. has a 52-week low of $433.97 and a 52-week high of $638.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.16.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 13th. The software company reported $4.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.39 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $5.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.29 billion. Adobe had a return on equity of 40.67% and a net margin of 24.86%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $3.04 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Adobe Inc. will post 14.69 EPS for the current year.

Adobe announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, March 14th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software company to reacquire up to 10.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.