Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) Shares Sold by Legal & General Group Plc

Legal & General Group Plc decreased its holdings in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 24.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,284,343 shares of the software company’s stock after selling 1,041,103 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Adobe were worth $1,460,482,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. United Bank increased its position in shares of Adobe by 19.7% in the 3rd quarter. United Bank now owns 2,596 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $1,344,000 after acquiring an additional 428 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its stake in shares of Adobe by 13.3% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 58,700 shares of the software company’s stock worth $30,394,000 after purchasing an additional 6,900 shares during the last quarter. Zacks Investment Management raised its stake in shares of Adobe by 14.1% in the third quarter. Zacks Investment Management now owns 3,247 shares of the software company’s stock worth $1,681,000 after purchasing an additional 401 shares during the last quarter. XTX Topco Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Adobe during the third quarter worth about $1,049,000. Finally, Tenere Capital LLC boosted its position in Adobe by 260.8% in the third quarter. Tenere Capital LLC now owns 33,558 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $17,376,000 after buying an additional 24,258 shares during the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Adobe news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 3,819 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $430.24, for a total value of $1,643,086.56. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 18,334 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,888,020.16. This represents a 17.24 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Jillian Forusz sold 334 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $435.83, for a total transaction of $145,567.22. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,170,203.55. This trade represents a 11.06 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,075 shares of company stock valued at $2,191,826 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Trading Down 5.0 %

Shares of Adobe stock opened at $349.07 on Monday. Adobe Inc. has a 1-year low of $333.36 and a 1-year high of $587.75. The stock has a market cap of $148.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.07. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $425.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $463.29.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 12th. The software company reported $5.08 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.97 by $0.11. Adobe had a net margin of 25.85% and a return on equity of 45.87%. The firm had revenue of $5.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.66 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $4.48 EPS. Analysts predict that Adobe Inc. will post 16.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on ADBE. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased 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. StockNews.com cut Adobe from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Redburn Atlantic initiated coverage on Adobe in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on Adobe from $515.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Finally, KeyCorp raised shares of Adobe from an “underweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $531.54.

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.