Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. Increases Position in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Key Points

• Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. increased its stake in Adobe Inc. by 0.7%, bringing its total ownership to 124,167 shares worth approximately $47.6 million.
• Several hedge funds have significantly increased their positions in Adobe, including GAMMA Investing LLC, which raised its stake by 46,806.6%, now owning nearly 3 million shares valued at over $1.1 billion.
• Adobe's latest earnings report showed a quarterly EPS of $5.06, exceeding expectations, with revenue of $5.87 billion, a year-over-year increase of 10.6%.

Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S. boosted its position in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE - Free Report) by 0.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 124,167 shares of the software company's stock after acquiring an additional 842 shares during the period. Lazard Freres Gestion S.A.S.'s holdings in Adobe were worth $47,621,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH increased its stake in Adobe by 252.9% during the 4th quarter. Siemens Fonds Invest GmbH now owns 55,658 shares of the software company's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 39,888 shares in the last quarter. Barnes Dennig Private Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Adobe during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. SWAN Capital LLC acquired a new position in Adobe during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Copia Wealth Management acquired a new position in Adobe during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new position in Adobe during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 81.79% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the stock. JMP Securities restated a "market perform" rating on shares of Adobe in a research note on Monday, June 23rd. Evercore ISI restated an "outperform" rating and set a $475.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a research note on Friday, June 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Adobe from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Saturday. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $525.00 to $480.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, June 13th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $465.00 to $450.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, June 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, sixteen have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Adobe presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $473.88.

Adobe Price Performance

ADBE traded down $1.27 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $369.47. 2,982,954 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,264,594. The company has a current ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The company has a market capitalization of $156.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.64, a PEG ratio of 1.76 and a beta of 1.51. Adobe Inc. has a 52-week low of $332.01 and a 52-week high of $587.75. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $389.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $400.32.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, June 12th. The software company reported $5.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.97 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $5.87 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.80 billion. Adobe had a net margin of 30.39% and a return on equity of 53.68%. The company's revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $4.48 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Adobe Inc. will post 16.65 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.