Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) Short Interest Update

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE - Get Free Report) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 8,590,000 shares, a growth of 25.6% from the December 31st total of 6,840,000 shares. Currently, 2.0% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 3,560,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.4 days.

Adobe Trading Up 1.2 %

ADBE traded up $5.44 on Thursday, hitting $447.12. 952,013 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,841,676. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $464.63 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $505.15. The stock has a market capitalization of $194.63 billion, a PE ratio of 36.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.31. Adobe has a 12 month low of $403.75 and a 12 month high of $638.25.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 11th. The software company reported $4.81 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.67 by $0.14. Adobe had a net margin of 25.85% and a return on equity of 45.87%. The business had revenue of $5.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $3.52 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Adobe will post 16.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Adobe

In other news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 3,819 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $430.24, for a total transaction of $1,643,086.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 18,334 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,888,020.16. This trade represents a 17.24 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Amy Banse sold 606 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $550.00, for a total transaction of $333,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 32,929 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,110,950. This trade represents a 1.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 5,681 shares of company stock valued at $2,525,126. Insiders own 0.15% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Adobe

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in ADBE. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG raised its holdings in shares of Adobe by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Bank Pictet & Cie Europe AG now owns 28,969 shares of the software company's stock valued at $12,882,000 after acquiring an additional 756 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Adobe by 7.1% in the 4th quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,919 shares of the software company's stock worth $3,521,000 after purchasing an additional 523 shares during the period. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP boosted its stake in shares of Adobe by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Klingenstein Fields & Co. LP now owns 25,401 shares of the software company's stock valued at $11,295,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares in the last quarter. Pictet North America Advisors SA raised its stake in Adobe by 37.4% in the fourth quarter. Pictet North America Advisors SA now owns 6,914 shares of the software company's stock worth $3,075,000 after buying an additional 1,881 shares in the last quarter. Finally, W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in Adobe by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. W.H. Cornerstone Investments Inc. now owns 1,070 shares of the software company's stock worth $476,000 after buying an additional 33 shares during the period. 81.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ADBE has been the topic of a number of research reports. BNP Paribas raised Adobe from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $425.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on shares of Adobe from $644.00 to $587.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. JMP Securities reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of Adobe in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on Adobe from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Adobe from $700.00 to $640.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $573.00.

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.