Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Shares Down 0.6% After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE - Get Free Report) fell 0.6% during trading on Tuesday after Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on the stock from $700.00 to $640.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Adobe traded as low as $426.28 and last traded at $428.77. 1,102,920 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 66% from the average session volume of 3,256,715 shares. The stock had previously closed at $431.18.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on ADBE. StockNews.com upgraded Adobe from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $644.00 to $587.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Argus upgraded shares of Adobe to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Monday, September 16th. Piper Sandler lowered their price target on shares of Adobe from $635.00 to $600.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on Adobe from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $580.65.

Insider Buying and Selling at Adobe

In related news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 481 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $483.42, for a total transaction of $232,525.02. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 18,128 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,763,437.76. This represents a 2.58 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Jillian Forusz sold 676 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $484.97, for a total transaction of $327,839.72. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,316,693.55. This represents a 19.94 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 3,293 shares of company stock worth $1,679,809. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Adobe

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Piscataqua Savings Bank grew its stake in Adobe by 226.7% in the 3rd quarter. Piscataqua Savings Bank now owns 49 shares of the software company's stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 34 shares during the period. Legacy Investment Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Adobe in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Groupama Asset Managment increased its stake in shares of Adobe by 28.8% during the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 51,482 shares of the software company's stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 11,522 shares in the last quarter. MidAtlantic Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Adobe during the 3rd quarter worth about $30,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC lifted its stake in Adobe by 141.7% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 58 shares of the software company's stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 34 shares in the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Adobe Price Performance

The stock's 50 day moving average is $489.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $520.13. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $186.04 billion, a PE ratio of 34.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.31.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, December 11th. The software company reported $4.81 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.67 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $5.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $5.54 billion. Adobe had a return on equity of 45.22% and a net margin of 25.85%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $3.52 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Adobe Inc. will post 16.73 EPS 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.