Raymond James & Associates Sells 38,492 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Raymond James & Associates decreased its holdings in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 6.9% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 520,552 shares of the software company’s stock after selling 38,492 shares during the quarter. Raymond James & Associates’ holdings in Adobe were worth $262,670,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Rockland Trust Co. raised its holdings in Adobe by 4.1% during the 3rd quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 1,106 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $564,000 after acquiring an additional 44 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in Adobe by 22.6% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 223,667 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $133,440,000 after acquiring an additional 41,164 shares in the last quarter. Mainsail Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in Adobe by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Mainsail Financial Group LLC now owns 2,100 shares of the software company’s stock worth $1,252,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Team Hewins LLC purchased a new position in shares of Adobe during the 3rd quarter valued at $4,141,000. Finally, Guinness Asset Management LTD increased its holdings in shares of Adobe by 5.9% in the third quarter. Guinness Asset Management LTD now owns 44,586 shares of the software company’s stock worth $22,734,000 after purchasing an additional 2,499 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of Adobe stock traded up $4.12 during trading on Friday, reaching $477.56. 2,460,261 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,815,745. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market cap of $213.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.28. Adobe Inc. has a 1 year low of $331.89 and a 1 year high of $638.25. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $515.34 and its 200 day moving average is $564.66.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $5.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.97 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 11.3% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Adobe Inc. will post 14.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on ADBE shares. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $630.00 target price on shares of Adobe in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Barclays cut their price objective on Adobe from $700.00 to $630.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. Robert W. Baird cut their price objective on Adobe from $590.00 to $525.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Adobe from $650.00 to $625.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Adobe from $600.00 to $570.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $620.72.

Insider Activity at Adobe

In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The shares were 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 directly owns 4,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,940,160. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total transaction of $45,120.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,940,160. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 97 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $468.41, for a total value of $45,435.77. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,933,596.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 293 shares of company stock worth $137,656 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Profile

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.