Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Buys 3,306 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC boosted its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 9.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 37,944 shares of the software company’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,306 shares during the quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Adobe were worth $19,147,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Barlow Wealth Partners Inc. bought a new position in Adobe in the 4th quarter valued at about $16,700,000. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its stake in Adobe by 22.6% during the fourth quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 223,667 shares of the software company’s stock worth $133,440,000 after purchasing an additional 41,164 shares during the last quarter. Mainsail Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Adobe by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Mainsail Financial Group LLC now owns 2,100 shares of the software company’s stock valued at $1,252,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Adobe by 267.3% during the 4th quarter. Vise Technologies Inc. now owns 7,769 shares of the software company’s stock worth $4,635,000 after buying an additional 5,654 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Steph & Co. raised its holdings in shares of Adobe by 63.8% during the 1st quarter. Steph & Co. now owns 77 shares of the software company’s stock worth $39,000 after buying an additional 30 shares in the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Adobe

In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total value of $45,120.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,128 shares in the company, valued at $1,940,160. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Anil Chakravarthy sold 100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $471.00, for a total transaction of $47,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 33,609 shares in the company, valued at $15,829,839. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total value of $45,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,128 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,940,160. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,270 shares of company stock worth $1,563,166 over the last ninety days. 0.15% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Adobe Stock Performance

ADBE stock traded up $18.10 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $546.76. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,733,061 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,578,013. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $481.75 and its 200 day moving average price is $535.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.28. Adobe Inc. has a 1 year low of $433.97 and a 1 year high of $638.25. The stock has a market cap of $244.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.00, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.27.

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

Adobe declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Thursday, March 14th that allows the company to buyback $25.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the software company to purchase up to 10.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently weighed in on ADBE shares. Piper Sandler Companies reduced their price objective on Adobe from $705.00 to $700.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. JMP Securities reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Adobe in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on Adobe from $675.00 to $700.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Adobe from $525.00 to $580.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, June 14th. Finally, HSBC reduced their price objective on Adobe from $557.00 to $511.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and twenty-one have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $607.67.

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.