Kentucky Retirement Systems Sells 2,870 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Kentucky Retirement Systems reduced its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE - Free Report) by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 30,890 shares of the software company's stock after selling 2,870 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems' holdings in Adobe were worth $15,994,000 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 ADBE. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Adobe by 66,909.7% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,378,390 shares of the software company's stock valued at $713,703,000 after purchasing an additional 1,376,333 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Adobe in the 1st quarter valued at $621,179,000. Longview Partners Guernsey LTD bought a new position in Adobe in the 2nd quarter worth $663,745,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in Adobe by 17.6% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,644,050 shares of the software company's stock worth $3,857,189,000 after acquiring an additional 1,146,718 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BlueSpruce Investments LP boosted its holdings in Adobe by 81.1% during the first quarter. BlueSpruce Investments LP now owns 1,285,596 shares of the software company's stock valued at $648,712,000 after acquiring an additional 575,675 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.79% of the company's stock.

Adobe Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ ADBE traded down $26.50 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $503.37. 4,612,417 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,172,124. Adobe Inc. has a twelve month low of $433.97 and a twelve month high of $638.25. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $509.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $517.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.11. The company has a market cap of $221.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.51, a PEG ratio of 2.74 and a beta of 1.30.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, September 12th. The software company reported $4.65 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.53 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $5.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.37 billion. Adobe had a return on equity of 42.82% and a net margin of 25.59%. The business's revenue was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.26 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Adobe Inc. will post 14.82 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Adobe

In other news, CEO Shantanu Narayen sold 25,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $521.58, for a total transaction of $13,039,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 357,700 shares of the company's stock, valued at $186,569,166. This represents a 6.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Jillian Forusz sold 676 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $484.97, for a total value of $327,839.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,715 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,316,693.55. The trade was a 19.94 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 34,187 shares of company stock worth $17,736,369. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on ADBE shares. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on Adobe from $600.00 to $650.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Barclays lifted their price target on Adobe from $650.00 to $675.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. StockNews.com raised Adobe from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an "outperform" rating and set a $610.00 target price on shares of Adobe in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Bank of America reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $640.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a report on Friday, September 13th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating, eighteen have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $606.40.

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.