Fifth Third Bancorp Buys 68,653 Shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in shares of Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE - Free Report) by 54.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 194,917 shares of the software company's stock after acquiring an additional 68,653 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp's holdings in Adobe were worth $98,355,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Adobe by 5.7% during the third quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 116,382 shares of the software company's stock worth $59,343,000 after purchasing an additional 6,270 shares during the last quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK increased its holdings in Adobe by 57.1% in the third quarter. Capital Advisors Inc. OK now owns 754 shares of the software company's stock valued at $385,000 after purchasing an additional 274 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. raised its position in shares of Adobe by 9.7% during the third quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 15,220 shares of the software company's stock worth $7,761,000 after acquiring an additional 1,350 shares during the last quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management raised its holdings in Adobe by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management now owns 130 shares of the software company's stock worth $66,000 after purchasing an additional 20 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Avaii Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Adobe by 2.9% during the third quarter. Avaii Wealth Management LLC now owns 750 shares of the software company's stock worth $382,000 after buying an additional 21 shares during the last quarter. 81.79% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Adobe

In other Adobe news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of the company'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 directly owns 4,128 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,940,160. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 96 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $470.00, for a total transaction of $45,120.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,128 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,940,160. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Mark S. Garfield sold 97 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $468.41, for a total value of $45,435.77. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 4,128 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,933,596.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 293 shares of company stock valued at $137,656 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.15% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on ADBE. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $600.00 to $540.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 15th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $630.00 target price on shares of Adobe in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. DA Davidson restated a "buy" rating and set a $685.00 price target on shares of Adobe in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price objective on shares of Adobe from $590.00 to $525.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Bank of America decreased their price objective on Adobe from $700.00 to $640.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 15th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and twenty have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $620.72.

Adobe Stock Performance

Shares of ADBE traded up $7.18 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $476.57. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,515,555 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,464,973. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $509.68 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $562.19. The company has a market cap of $213.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.56, a PEG ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.28. Adobe Inc. has a 52-week low of $331.89 and a 52-week high of $638.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The software company reported $4.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $4.38 by $0.10. Adobe had a return on equity of 39.12% and a net margin of 24.08%. The company had revenue of $5.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.14 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $2.97 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Adobe Inc. will post 14.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Adobe announced that its board has approved a share buyback plan on Thursday, March 14th that permits the company to buyback $25.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the software company to reacquire up to 10.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Adobe Profile

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.

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