ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 9.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 891 shares of the software company’s stock after selling 94 shares during the period. ZWJ Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Adobe were worth $532,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Adobe during the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Adobe by 215.9% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 2,559 shares of the software company’s stock worth $1,527,000 after acquiring an additional 1,749 shares during the last quarter. Zhang Financial LLC increased its position in shares of Adobe by 58.7% during the fourth quarter. Zhang Financial LLC now owns 2,287 shares of the software company’s stock worth $1,364,000 after purchasing an additional 846 shares in the last quarter. Ninepoint Partners LP acquired a new position in Adobe in the 4th quarter valued at $646,000. Finally, Andrew Hill Investment Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Adobe during the fourth quarter worth $3,329,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Adobe

In other 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 transaction of $45,120.00. Following the transaction, 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 filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of the company’s 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 sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,940,160. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Scott Belsky sold 2,191 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $601.71, for a total value of $1,318,346.61. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 23,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,144,998.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 3,075 shares of company stock valued at $1,848,418. 0.15% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ADBE has been the subject of several research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $600.00 to $570.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 15th. TheStreet downgraded Adobe from a “b-” rating to a “c+” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 19th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $610.00 target price on shares of Adobe in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $660.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, HSBC cut their price objective on shares of Adobe from $557.00 to $511.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research 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 given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Adobe has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $620.72.

Adobe Stock Performance

NASDAQ ADBE traded down $8.16 during trading on Friday, reaching $465.02. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,282,142 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,213,157. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $527.09 and its 200-day moving average price is $565.93. Adobe Inc. has a twelve month low of $331.89 and a twelve month high of $638.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market cap of $208.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.46, a P/E/G ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.28.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $5.18 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.14 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $2.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Adobe Inc. will post 14.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Adobe announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, March 14th that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software company to repurchase up to 10.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Adobe Company 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.