West Paces Advisors Inc. Buys 33 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

West Paces Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 7.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 467 shares of the software company’s stock after acquiring an additional 33 shares during the quarter. West Paces Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Adobe were worth $279,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of Adobe by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 18,632,322 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $7,180,322,000 after acquiring an additional 269,173 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley lifted its position in shares of Adobe by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,371,262 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $5,288,309,000 after acquiring an additional 277,484 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of Adobe by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,358,515 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $2,732,307,000 after acquiring an additional 202,136 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Adobe during the 4th quarter valued at $1,757,029,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Adobe by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 4,561,859 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $2,326,092,000 after acquiring an additional 498,957 shares during the period. 81.79% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Adobe Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of Adobe stock traded up $6.12 on Tuesday, hitting $476.22. 2,656,260 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,613,304. Adobe Inc. has a one year low of $331.89 and a one year high of $638.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The company has a fifty day moving average of $538.63 and a two-hundred day moving average of $567.86. The company has a market capitalization of $213.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 1.28.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last announced its earnings results 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 company had revenue of $5.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $2.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Adobe Inc. will post 14.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Adobe announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, March 14th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the software company to repurchase up to 10.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ADBE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. BNP Paribas downgraded Adobe from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $499.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Thursday, January 18th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $630.00 price objective on shares of Adobe in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Adobe from $600.00 to $540.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 15th. BMO Capital Markets restated an “outperform” rating and set a $610.00 price objective on shares of Adobe in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, DA Davidson reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $685.00 target price on shares of Adobe in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and twenty have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $620.72.

Insider Activity at Adobe

In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.99, for a total value of $49,727.16. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at $2,400,519.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 84 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $591.99, for a total value of $49,727.16. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,055 shares in the company, valued at $2,400,519.45. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Scott Belsky sold 2,191 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 23,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,144,998.68. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,063 shares of company stock worth $1,853,025 in the last 90 days. 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.