AIA Group Ltd Sells 1,028 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

AIA Group Ltd lowered its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 22.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,651 shares of the software company’s stock after selling 1,028 shares during the period. AIA Group Ltd’s holdings in Adobe were worth $2,178,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Adobe by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 18,632,322 shares of the software company’s stock worth $7,180,322,000 after purchasing an additional 269,173 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley increased its holdings in shares of Adobe by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,371,262 shares of the software company’s stock worth $5,288,309,000 after acquiring an additional 277,484 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Adobe by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,358,515 shares of the software company’s stock worth $2,732,307,000 after acquiring an additional 202,136 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Adobe during the 4th quarter worth approximately $1,757,029,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC increased its holdings in shares of Adobe by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,561,859 shares of the software company’s stock worth $2,326,092,000 after acquiring an additional 498,957 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of ADBE stock opened at $473.94 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $212.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.24, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.28. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $530.33 and a 200-day moving average of $566.32. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Adobe Inc. 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.38 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $5.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. Adobe had a return on equity of 39.12% and a net margin of 24.08%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $2.97 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Adobe Inc. will post 14.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Adobe announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, March 14th that permits the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the software company to buy up to 10.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total transaction of $45,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,940,160. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total transaction of $45,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,940,160. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Scott Belsky sold 2,191 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $601.71, for a total value of $1,318,346.61. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,144,998.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 3,075 shares of company stock valued at $1,848,418 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. JMP Securities reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Adobe in a report on Thursday, March 28th. DA Davidson reissued a “buy” rating and set a $685.00 target price on shares of Adobe in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Bank of America decreased their target price on Adobe from $700.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 15th. BNP Paribas lowered Adobe from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $499.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Finally, HSBC decreased their price objective on Adobe from $557.00 to $511.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $620.72.

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.