Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. Increases Stake in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 288.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 11,218 shares of the software company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,333 shares during the quarter. Adobe makes up approximately 0.7% of Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest position. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Adobe were worth $6,693,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. VELA Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Adobe by 122.2% during the first quarter. VELA Investment Management LLC now owns 1,958 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $892,000 after buying an additional 1,077 shares during the last quarter. Bornite Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Adobe during the first quarter valued at $15,947,000. United Bank raised its holdings in Adobe by 34.7% in the 1st quarter. United Bank now owns 2,109 shares of the software company’s stock worth $961,000 after acquiring an additional 543 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in Adobe by 21.0% in the 1st quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 525,897 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $239,609,000 after acquiring an additional 91,328 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ergoteles LLC increased its holdings in shares of Adobe by 138.3% in the 1st quarter. Ergoteles LLC now owns 6,651 shares of the software company’s stock worth $3,030,000 after purchasing an additional 3,860 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on ADBE. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Adobe from $690.00 to $675.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of Adobe from $650.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 15th. BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $610.00 price objective on shares of Adobe in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. KeyCorp began coverage on shares of Adobe in a report on Thursday, March 21st. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $445.00 target price for the company. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on shares of Adobe from $700.00 to $640.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $620.72.

Adobe Stock Up 1.4 %

NASDAQ ADBE traded up $6.59 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $476.69. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,918,996 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,602,057. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The company has a market cap of $213.56 billion, a PE ratio of 45.19, a P/E/G ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.28. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $538.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $567.86. Adobe Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $331.89 and a fifty-two week high of $638.25.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.38 by $0.10. Adobe had a return on equity of 39.12% and a net margin of 24.08%. The firm had revenue of $5.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.97 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Adobe Inc. will post 14.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Adobe declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Thursday, March 14th that authorizes the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the software company to reacquire up to 10.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Adobe

In other news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.99, for a total value of $49,727.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at $2,400,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.99, for a total value of $49,727.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at $2,400,519.45. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 788 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $615.42, for a total value of $484,950.96. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,055 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,495,528.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 3,063 shares of company stock valued at $1,853,025. 0.15% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.