Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co Cuts Stock Holdings in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co lessened its holdings in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 8.8% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 77,649 shares of the software company’s stock after selling 7,474 shares during the quarter. Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Adobe were worth $43,137,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Adobe by 1.0% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 40,648,975 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $20,511,473,000 after purchasing an additional 382,803 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Adobe by 17.6% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 7,644,050 shares of the software company’s stock worth $3,857,189,000 after acquiring an additional 1,146,718 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Adobe in the 4th quarter worth approximately $3,277,785,000. Concentrum Wealth Management increased its stake in Adobe by 11.3% in the 4th quarter. Concentrum Wealth Management now owns 2,405,622 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $1,435,194,000 after purchasing an additional 244,008 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in Adobe by 5.4% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 2,388,198 shares of the software company’s stock worth $1,424,799,000 after purchasing an additional 122,738 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.79% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on Adobe from $653.00 to $660.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, June 17th. JMP Securities restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Adobe in a research report on Friday, June 14th. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Adobe from $445.00 to $450.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Adobe from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $570.00 to $580.00 in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $650.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a research report on Friday, June 7th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $605.52.

Adobe Trading Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:ADBE traded down $4.52 during trading on Friday, reaching $563.41. 2,096,790 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,173,966. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $553.72 and its 200 day moving average price is $519.22. The firm has a market cap of $249.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.29. Adobe Inc. has a 12-month low of $433.97 and a 12-month high of $638.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.16.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 13th. The software company reported $4.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.39 by $0.09. Adobe had a net margin of 24.86% and a return on equity of 40.67%. The company had revenue of $5.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.29 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $3.04 earnings per share. Adobe’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Adobe Inc. will post 14.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Scott Belsky sold 481 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $537.00, for a total transaction of $258,297.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 19,658 shares in the company, valued at $10,556,346. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Adobe news, CEO Shantanu Narayen sold 25,000 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $544.11, for a total transaction of $13,602,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 379,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $206,576,802.60. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Scott Belsky sold 481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $537.00, for a total value of $258,297.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19,658 shares in the company, valued at $10,556,346. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 27,523 shares of company stock worth $14,994,277. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.