Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. Makes New Investment in Adobe Inc. $ADBE

Key Points

• Pekin Hardy Strauss purchased a new stake in Adobe, acquiring 7,796 shares worth about $2.73 million in the fourth quarter, while institutional investors now own roughly 81.79% of the company.
• Adobe's Board authorized a substantial share repurchase program — up to $25 billion, representing as much as 24.9% of outstanding shares — signaling management's view that the stock may be undervalued.
• Adobe is expanding its AI and marketing capabilities (completed the Semrush acquisition and launched the Firefly AI Assistant beta), but recent analyst downgrades and price‑target cuts have weighed on the stock's near‑term outlook.

Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. purchased a new stake in Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 7,796 shares of the software company's stock, valued at approximately $2,729,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Narwhal Capital Management increased its position in Adobe by 43.7% in the 4th quarter. Narwhal Capital Management now owns 12,840 shares of the software company's stock valued at $4,494,000 after acquiring an additional 3,906 shares during the period. Chapin Davis Inc. boosted its position in Adobe by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Chapin Davis Inc. now owns 3,002 shares of the software company's stock worth $1,051,000 after acquiring an additional 122 shares during the period. Archer Investment Corp boosted its position in Adobe by 86.9% during the 4th quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 2,329 shares of the software company's stock worth $815,000 after acquiring an additional 1,083 shares during the period. AMG National Trust Bank grew its stake in shares of Adobe by 158.8% in the fourth quarter. AMG National Trust Bank now owns 3,934 shares of the software company's stock worth $1,377,000 after purchasing an additional 2,414 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vest Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Adobe by 17.5% in the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 9,238 shares of the software company's stock worth $3,233,000 after purchasing an additional 1,376 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 81.79% of the company's stock.

More Adobe News

Here are the key news stories impacting Adobe this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Adobe completed its acquisition of Semrush, adding AI‑driven brand visibility, SEO and search‑optimization capabilities to Adobe Experience Cloud — a strategic bolt‑on that strengthens Adobe’s marketing/commerce stack as search and agentic AI become primary discovery channels. Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: Partnerships and go‑to‑market expansion: Adobe announced a collaboration with Alluvium to bring demand/supply intelligence to health systems and is expanding enterprise AI integrations with agencies like Omnicom — moves that extend Adobe’s enterprise footprint and recurring revenue opportunities. Read More. · Read More.
• Positive Sentiment: AI product rollout: Adobe launched a public beta of the Firefly AI Assistant with cross‑app workflow automation and is integrating agentic AI (including partnerships around Claude/other models), which supports adoption and upsell into Creative Cloud and Experience customers. This reinforces Adobe’s positioning on generative/agentic AI for creators and marketers. Read More.
• Neutral Sentiment: Near‑term results preview: Analysts expect Adobe to deliver another quarter of double‑digit EPS growth; prior quarter showed a beat (Q1 revenue and EPS above consensus) and management set FY‑26 guidance — these fundamentals temper the selloff but may not be enough to offset bearish sentiment. Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Mizuho downgrade and price‑target cut: Mizuho downgraded ADBE from Outperform to Neutral and cut its PT from $315 to $270, citing weakened conviction around growth and increased AI‑driven competition in prosumer and SMB segments — the downgrade is the primary driver of today’s share weakness. Read More. · Read More.
• Negative Sentiment: Macro/industry concern: Bridgewater’s CIO warned that AI could be an existential threat to legacy software firms — a broad cautionary view that amplifies investor fears about margin compression and competitive disruption across incumbents like Adobe. Read More.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on ADBE. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Adobe from $425.00 to $365.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Adobe from $520.00 to $420.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reissued a "hold" rating on shares of Adobe in a research note on Friday, March 13th. BTIG Research began coverage on shares of Adobe in a research note on Monday, April 13th. They issued a "neutral" rating for the company. Finally, UBS Group decreased their price objective on shares of Adobe from $290.00 to $260.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have issued a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and five have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $338.15.

Adobe Price Performance

Shares of Adobe stock opened at $243.19 on Wednesday. Adobe Inc. has a 52 week low of $224.13 and a 52 week high of $422.95. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.47. The stock has a market cap of $98.30 billion, a PE ratio of 14.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.52. The company's 50-day moving average price is $251.01 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $297.94.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 12th. The software company reported $6.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $5.87 by $0.19. Adobe had a net margin of 29.48% and a return on equity of 64.48%. The company had revenue of $6.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $6.28 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $5.08 EPS. The business's revenue was up 12.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Adobe has set its FY 2026 guidance at 23.300-23.500 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 5.800-5.850 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Adobe Inc. will post 19.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Adobe declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Tuesday, April 21st that authorizes the company to repurchase $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the software company to repurchase up to 24.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Adobe

In other Adobe news, CFO Daniel Durn sold 1,336 shares of Adobe stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.02, for a total value of $331,354.72. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 42,833 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,623,440.66. The trade was a 3.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.20% of the company's stock.

Adobe Profile

Adobe Inc, founded in 1982 by John Warnock and Charles Geschke and headquartered in San Jose, California, is a global software company that develops tools and services for creative professionals, marketers and enterprises. Under the leadership of CEO Shantanu Narayen, who has led the company since 2007, Adobe has evolved from a provider of desktop publishing tools into a cloud-centric provider of digital media and digital experience solutions.

The company's core offerings are organized around digital media and digital experience.

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