Handelsbanken Fonder AB Raises Position in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 6.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 170,531 shares of the software company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,857 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in Adobe were worth $75,832,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Adobe by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 1,712,616 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $765,094,000 after purchasing an additional 33,414 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its holdings in shares of Adobe by 12.2% during the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 19,322 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $10,005,000 after purchasing an additional 2,100 shares during the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in Adobe by 201.0% in the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 117,383 shares of the software company’s stock worth $60,779,000 after acquiring an additional 78,384 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc raised its stake in Adobe by 33.0% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in Adobe by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 99,150 shares of the software company’s stock worth $44,090,000 after acquiring an additional 1,326 shares during the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Adobe Price Performance

Shares of ADBE opened at $456.99 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $198.93 billion, a PE ratio of 36.85, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.31. 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 firm’s 50 day moving average price is $441.28 and its 200 day moving average price is $494.89. Adobe Inc. has a twelve month low of $403.75 and a twelve month high of $587.75.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, December 11th. The software company reported $4.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $4.67 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $5.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.54 billion. Adobe had a return on equity of 45.87% and a net margin of 25.85%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $3.52 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Adobe Inc. will post 16.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Adobe

In related news, CAO Jillian Forusz sold 334 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 2,685 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,170,203.55. This trade represents a 11.06 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Scott Belsky sold 922 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $437.28, for a total transaction of $403,172.16. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,153 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,687,063.84. This trade represents a 4.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,681 shares of company stock valued at $2,525,126 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ADBE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Mizuho reduced their target price on Adobe from $640.00 to $620.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on shares of Adobe from $650.00 to $600.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Adobe from $525.00 to $475.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Oppenheimer decreased their price target on shares of Adobe from $625.00 to $600.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their target price on Adobe from $644.00 to $587.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, December 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, sixteen have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $570.88.

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.