California Public Employees Retirement System Grows Stake in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

California Public Employees Retirement System increased its holdings in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 986,587 shares of the software company’s stock after acquiring an additional 26,429 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Adobe were worth $438,716,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in ADBE. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Adobe by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,712,616 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $765,094,000 after buying an additional 33,414 shares in the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Adobe by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 127,696 shares of the software company’s stock worth $56,784,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Adobe by 201.0% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 117,383 shares of the software company’s stock worth $60,779,000 after purchasing an additional 78,384 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Adobe by 33.0% in the 3rd quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc now owns 8,519 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $4,411,000 after purchasing an additional 2,113 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Adobe by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 99,150 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $44,090,000 after purchasing an additional 1,326 shares during the period. 81.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Jillian Forusz sold 334 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $435.83, for a total transaction of $145,567.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 2,685 shares in the company, valued at $1,170,203.55. The trade was a 11.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Daniel Durn acquired 1,300 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction that occurred 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 purchase, the chief financial officer now directly owns 29,876 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,668,968.08. This trade represents a 4.55 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 5,075 shares of company stock valued at $2,191,826. Corporate insiders own 0.16% of the company’s stock.

Adobe Trading Down 2.6 %

NASDAQ:ADBE opened at $385.71 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $164.39 billion, a PE ratio of 31.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 1.37. Adobe Inc. has a 52-week low of $374.50 and a 52-week high of $587.75. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $431.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $469.69. The company has a quick ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 1.07 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 12th. The software company reported $5.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $5.66 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $4.48 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Adobe Inc. will post 16.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

ADBE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Adobe in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $475.00 target price (down from $600.00) on shares of Adobe in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Adobe from $515.00 to $495.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $644.00 to $587.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of Adobe from $675.00 to $645.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seventeen have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Adobe has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $533.85.

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.