Evercore ISI Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by equities researchers at Evercore ISI in a note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $475.00 target price on the software company’s stock. Evercore ISI’s price target would suggest a potential upside of 22.60% from the stock’s current price.

Several other research firms also recently commented on ADBE. Oppenheimer reduced their price objective on Adobe from $560.00 to $530.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Adobe from $580.00 to $540.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 13th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on Adobe from $600.00 to $525.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Summit Redstone set a $410.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on Adobe from $430.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $501.88.

Adobe Price Performance

Shares of ADBE stock traded down $26.23 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $387.45. The company had a trading volume of 4,118,134 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,423,688. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a quick ratio of 1.07 and a current ratio of 1.07. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $385.73 and a 200-day moving average of $422.64. The company has a market capitalization of $165.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.32, a PEG ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.55. Adobe has a 12-month low of $332.01 and a 12-month high of $587.75.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 12th. The software company reported $5.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.97 by $0.11. Adobe had a net margin of 25.85% and a return on equity of 45.87%. The company had revenue of $5.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.66 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $4.48 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Adobe will post 16.65 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Daniel Durn bought 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 20th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $390.58 per share, for a total transaction of $507,754.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,876 shares in the company, valued at $11,668,968.08. This represents a 4.55% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.16% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Adobe

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Adobe by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,143,835 shares of the software company’s stock worth $15,779,895,000 after purchasing an additional 171,547 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Adobe by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,680,375 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $4,739,788,000 after acquiring an additional 151,286 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Adobe by 14.4% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 6,530,611 shares of the software company’s stock worth $2,504,685,000 after buying an additional 821,293 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Adobe during the 4th quarter valued at $2,553,035,000. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in Adobe by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 5,468,383 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $2,097,289,000 after buying an additional 126,688 shares in the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.