Essex Savings Bank Increases Position in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Essex Savings Bank grew its holdings in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 2.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 4,026 shares of the software company’s stock after purchasing an additional 105 shares during the quarter. Essex Savings Bank’s holdings in Adobe were worth $1,790,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. ERn Financial LLC increased its position in Adobe by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. ERn Financial LLC now owns 1,667 shares of the software company’s stock worth $741,000 after purchasing an additional 98 shares during the last quarter. Advisors Management Group Inc. ADV purchased a new position in Adobe in the fourth quarter worth approximately $272,000. Apella Capital LLC increased its stake in Adobe by 11.1% during the fourth quarter. Apella Capital LLC now owns 701 shares of the software company’s stock worth $312,000 after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. M. Kraus & Co acquired a new position in shares of Adobe in the 4th quarter valued at $3,285,000. Finally, Acropolis Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Adobe during the 4th quarter worth $442,000. 81.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Adobe

In other Adobe news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $483.42, for a total transaction of $232,525.02. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 18,128 shares in the company, 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 can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Jillian Forusz sold 676 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction that occurred 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 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. Insiders have sold a total of 1,763 shares of company stock worth $893,665 over the last three months. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of Adobe from $625.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $475.00 target price (down previously from $600.00) on shares of Adobe in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Adobe in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Mizuho cut their price objective on Adobe from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on Adobe from $616.00 to $590.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, December 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating, sixteen have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Adobe presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $573.00.

Adobe Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of ADBE stock opened at $417.28 on Thursday. Adobe Inc. has a twelve month low of $403.75 and a twelve month high of $638.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.11, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. The business’s 50 day moving average is $481.07 and its two-hundred day moving average is $515.02. The company has a market capitalization of $183.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.31.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 11th. The software company reported $4.81 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.67 by $0.14. Adobe had a net margin of 25.85% and a return on equity of 45.22%. The company had revenue of $5.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.54 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $3.52 EPS. Adobe’s quarterly revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Adobe Inc. will post 16.73 EPS for the current 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.