Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 10,261 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its position in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 14.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 79,385 shares of the software company’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,261 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Adobe were worth $47,360,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Adobe in the third quarter valued at $25,000. HBC Financial Services PLLC bought a new stake in shares of Adobe in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates boosted its holdings in shares of Adobe by 57.6% in the 3rd quarter. Global Wealth Strategies & Associates now owns 52 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 19 shares in the last quarter. Financial Freedom LLC bought a new stake in shares of Adobe in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Fortis Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Adobe in the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. 81.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total value of $45,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,940,160. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total transaction of $45,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,128 shares in the company, valued at $1,940,160. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 788 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $615.42, for a total value of $484,950.96. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at $2,495,528.10. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 3,075 shares of company stock worth $1,848,418. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ADBE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Adobe from $700.00 to $630.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $630.00 target price on shares of Adobe in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Adobe from $600.00 to $570.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Piper Sandler reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $700.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a research note on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Adobe from $600.00 to $540.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Adobe presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $620.72.

Adobe Stock Performance

ADBE traded down $1.77 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $474.45. 2,034,141 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,592,028. Adobe Inc. has a 52 week low of $331.89 and a 52 week high of $638.25. The stock has a market cap of $212.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.36, a PEG ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $536.02 and a 200 day moving average of $567.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

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

Adobe announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase 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 buy up to 10.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.