Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Sets New 52-Week Low on Analyst Downgrade

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) reached a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Thursday after BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on the stock from $515.00 to $495.00. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Adobe traded as low as $389.11 and last traded at $393.38, with a volume of 2541108 shares. The stock had previously closed at $438.60.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $700.00 to $650.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. DA Davidson dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $685.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $500.00 to $490.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $640.00 to $600.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. 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 research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Adobe presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $553.12.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 3,819 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 18,334 shares in the company, valued at $7,888,020.16. This represents a 17.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director David A. Ricks purchased 2,250 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was bought at an average price of $443.98 per share, with a total value of $998,955.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 4,984 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,212,796.32. This trade represents a 82.30 % 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. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Adobe

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in ADBE. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Adobe during the fourth quarter worth $2,553,035,000. Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Adobe by 82,528.8% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,042,775 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $463,701,000 after acquiring an additional 1,041,513 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in shares of Adobe by 82.4% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 2,107,788 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $937,291,000 after acquiring an additional 952,233 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its stake in shares of Adobe by 1,414.5% in the fourth quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 889,000 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $395,321,000 after acquiring an additional 830,300 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of Adobe in the fourth quarter valued at about $365,750,000. Institutional investors own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Price Performance

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 company’s 50 day moving average is $439.01 and its 200 day moving average is $484.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $170.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.37.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 12th. The software company reported $5.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.97 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $5.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.66 billion. Adobe had a net margin of 25.85% and a return on equity of 45.87%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $4.48 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Adobe Inc. will post 16.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.