Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) Stock Rating Lowered by Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE – Get Rating) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $362.00 target price on the software company’s stock, down from their previous target price of $591.00.

A number of other analysts have also commented on the stock. Oppenheimer lowered their target price on shares of Adobe from $560.00 to $400.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 17th. Wolfe Research decreased their price target on shares of Adobe from $500.00 to $400.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Adobe from $710.00 to $605.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 24th. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of Adobe from $530.00 to $480.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird decreased their price target on shares of Adobe from $550.00 to $450.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 17th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Adobe has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $489.31.

ADBE stock opened at $376.64 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 1.04. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $402.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $465.97. Adobe has a fifty-two week low of $338.00 and a fifty-two week high of $699.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $177.96 billion, a PE ratio of 36.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 1.08.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, June 16th. The software company reported $3.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.31 by $0.04. Adobe had a net margin of 29.29% and a return on equity of 36.70%. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $2.56 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Adobe will post 10.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other Adobe news, Director John E. Warnock sold 615 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $432.03, for a total transaction of $265,698.45. Following the transaction, the director now owns 410,165 shares in the company, valued at approximately $177,203,584.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Scott Belsky sold 2,710 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $410.18, for a total transaction of $1,111,587.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 27,917 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,450,995.06. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 8,325 shares of company stock worth $3,398,786. 0.23% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Welch & Forbes LLC grew its position in shares of Adobe by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC now owns 82,260 shares of the software company’s stock worth $46,646,000 after purchasing an additional 3,210 shares in the last quarter. Vident Investment Advisory LLC boosted its position in shares of Adobe by 17.7% during the 4th quarter. Vident Investment Advisory LLC now owns 8,751 shares of the software company’s stock worth $4,962,000 after acquiring an additional 1,318 shares in the last quarter. Peak Financial Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Adobe during the 4th quarter worth approximately $201,000. Benjamin Edwards Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Adobe during the 4th quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Rather & Kittrell Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Adobe during the 4th quarter worth approximately $47,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.54% of the company’s stock.

About Adobe (Get Rating)

Adobe Inc 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.

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