Welch & Forbes LLC Sells 343 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Welch & Forbes LLC decreased its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 116,912 shares of the software company’s stock after selling 343 shares during the period. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Adobe were worth $51,988,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC bought a new stake in shares of Adobe during the 3rd quarter worth about $26,000. Groupama Asset Managment boosted its holdings in Adobe by 28.8% in the 3rd quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 51,482 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 11,522 shares during the period. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in Adobe in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its holdings in Adobe by 141.7% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 58 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 34 shares during the period. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. bought a new stake in Adobe in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Institutional investors own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Trading Down 1.4 %

ADBE opened at $444.78 on Friday. Adobe Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $403.75 and a fifty-two week high of $587.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $193.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.87, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.37. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $439.51 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $488.46.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, December 11th. The software company reported $4.81 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.67 by $0.14. Adobe had a net margin of 25.85% and a return on equity of 45.87%. The firm had revenue of $5.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $3.52 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts predict that Adobe Inc. will post 16.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 3,819 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $430.24, for a total value of $1,643,086.56. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 18,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,888,020.16. This represents a 17.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director David A. Ricks acquired 2,250 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $443.98 per share, for a total transaction of $998,955.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 4,984 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,212,796.32. The trade was a 82.30 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,075 shares of company stock valued at $2,191,826 in the last ninety days. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on ADBE. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $590.00 price objective on shares of Adobe in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Adobe from $700.00 to $640.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price objective on shares of Adobe from $700.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Redburn Atlantic assumed coverage on shares of Adobe in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Adobe from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $425.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $570.88.

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.