Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Earns “Outperform” Rating from Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) in a report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $630.00 target price on the software company’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on ADBE. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Adobe from $590.00 to $525.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. KeyCorp initiated coverage on Adobe in a research note on Thursday, March 21st. They set an underweight rating and a $445.00 price objective on the stock. HSBC lowered their price objective on Adobe from $557.00 to $511.00 and set a hold rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Adobe from $610.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 12th. Finally, Piper Sandler Companies lowered their price objective on Adobe from $705.00 to $700.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus target price of $620.72.

Adobe Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:ADBE opened at $504.60 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $569.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $570.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $228.36 billion, a PE ratio of 48.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.73 and a beta of 1.29. Adobe has a 1 year low of $331.89 and a 1 year high of $638.25.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.38 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $5.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.14 billion. Adobe had a return on equity of 39.12% and a net margin of 24.08%. The business’s revenue was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.97 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Adobe will post 14.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Adobe announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, March 14th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software company to reacquire up to 10.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Adobe news, insider David Wadhwani sold 6,099 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $571.77, for a total transaction of $3,487,225.23. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,614 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,353,456.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Adobe news, insider David Wadhwani sold 6,099 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $571.77, for a total transaction of $3,487,225.23. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,614 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,353,456.78. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.99, for a total value of $49,727.16. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,400,519.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 9,162 shares of company stock worth $5,340,250 in the last quarter. 0.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ADBE. VELA Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Adobe by 122.2% during the 1st quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 1,958 shares of the software company’s stock worth $892,000 after acquiring an additional 1,077 shares in the last quarter. Bornite Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Adobe during the 1st quarter worth about $15,947,000. United Bank boosted its position in shares of Adobe by 34.7% during the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 2,109 shares of the software company’s stock worth $961,000 after acquiring an additional 543 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Adobe by 21.0% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 525,897 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $239,609,000 after purchasing an additional 91,328 shares during the period. Finally, Ergoteles LLC boosted its position in shares of Adobe by 138.3% in the 1st quarter. Ergoteles LLC now owns 6,651 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $3,030,000 after purchasing an additional 3,860 shares during the period. 81.79% of the stock is 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.