Equitable Holdings Inc. Buys New Shares in Adobe Inc. $ADBE

Equitable Holdings Inc. bought a new position in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) in the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 17,479 shares of the software company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,584,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nicholas Company Inc. grew its position in Adobe by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Nicholas Company Inc. now owns 174,626 shares of the software company’s stock worth $61,117,000 after purchasing an additional 12,400 shares during the period. Orange Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Adobe by 21.6% in the 4th quarter. Orange Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 29,541 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $10,339,000 after buying an additional 5,254 shares during the period. Johnson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Adobe in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,289,000. Barr E S & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Adobe by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Barr E S & Co. now owns 61,067 shares of the software company’s stock worth $21,373,000 after buying an additional 5,891 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Summit Global Investments purchased a new stake in shares of Adobe in the second quarter worth about $1,401,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on ADBE shares. Mizuho dropped their target price on Adobe from $270.00 to $245.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 12th. CLSA assumed coverage on Adobe in a research report on Monday, July 20th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $300.00 price objective on the stock. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $270.00 to $230.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $330.00 to $250.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 12th. Finally, HSBC raised shares of Adobe from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $282.00 to $308.00 in a report on Thursday, July 2nd. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty-one have assigned a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $270.96.

Key Stories Impacting Adobe

Here are the key news stories impacting Adobe this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Adobe benefited from a broader enterprise-software rally after Salesforce reported better-than-expected results, raised its outlook and announced an Anthropic partnership. The read-through eased concerns about AI disruption and improved sentiment toward Adobe’s AI strategy. Why Is Adobe Stock Surging on Thursday?
• Positive Sentiment: Adobe’s AI-first annual recurring revenue reportedly more than tripled to above $500 million, supported by Firefly, Acrobat AI and enterprise tools. The growth suggests AI is adding subscription and usage revenue rather than only threatening Adobe’s core products. AI Monetization Boosts ADBE’s Growth Prospects Against MSFT & CRM
• Positive Sentiment: Adobe expanded its partnership with Stagwell to combine data intelligence, creative transformation and AI capabilities in enterprise marketing. The arrangement could help Adobe win and retain larger business customers. Stagwell Expands Strategic Partnership with Adobe
• Positive Sentiment: Photoshop is adding an optional AI Assisted Editor that enables prompt-based image editing, reinforcing Adobe’s effort to make generative AI practical within its flagship applications. Adobe Photoshop adds AI Assisted Editor
• Neutral Sentiment: Adobe’s incubator is showcasing projects focused on full-service AI, while new education initiatives will provide free Photoshop, Firefly and Express access to millions of students and teachers. These efforts may expand future adoption, but the near-term revenue impact is unclear. Adobe Incubator Projects
• Negative Sentiment: Earlier concerns that cautious Intuit guidance could signal broader AI disruption had pressured Adobe and other software stocks. However, Salesforce’s results appear to have reduced those immediate sector concerns. Intuit AI Disruption Concerns

Adobe Price Performance

Shares of Adobe stock opened at $289.15 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $114.94 billion, a PE ratio of 16.54, a P/E/G ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.40. Adobe Inc. has a twelve month low of $190.12 and a twelve month high of $370.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.42. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $238.75 and a 200 day moving average price of $244.82.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 11th. The software company reported $5.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.82 by $0.14. Adobe had a return on equity of 65.11% and a net margin of 28.69%.The company had revenue of $6.62 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.45 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $5.06 earnings per share. Adobe’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% on a year-over-year basis. Adobe has set its FY 2026 guidance at 24.350-24.450 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 6.050-6.100 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Adobe Inc. will post 19.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Adobe

In related news, Director David A. Ricks purchased 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 25th. The stock was bought at an average price of $194.51 per share, with a total value of $1,945,100.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 17,655 shares in the company, valued at $3,434,074.05. The trade was a 130.63% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Jillian Forusz sold 416 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $264.33, for a total transaction of $109,961.28. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 3,824 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,010,797.92. This represents a 9.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Corporate insiders own 0.20% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Company Profile

Adobe Inc, founded in 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke and headquartered in San Jose, California, is a global software company that develops tools and services for creative professionals, marketers and enterprises. Under the leadership of CEO Shantanu Narayen, who has led the company since 2007, Adobe has evolved from a provider of desktop publishing tools into a cloud-centric provider of digital media and digital experience solutions.

The company’s core offerings are organized around digital media and digital experience.