As revealed in a Form 4 filing recently submitted with the SEC, Jeffrey Ubben’s ValueAct Capital sold 821,808 shares of Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) on Thursday and 100,000 shares on Monday at a weighted average price of $92.51 per unit. After the recent sales, the friendly activist hedge fund currently holds a stake of 8.74 million shares in Adobe, which constitute roughly 1.75% of the company’s outstanding common stock. Mr. Ubben’s fund owned 14.01 million shares of Adobe Systems at the end of December 2015, as disclosed in the firm’s 13F filing for the October-to-December period.
Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) is a diversified software company that provides a wide array of products and services for creating and managing digital content. The main pillar of growth of Adobe’s Digital Media business is its Creative Cloud, a subscription service that enables customers to download and install up-to-date versions of the company’s products such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Premiere Pro, to name just a few. And Mr. Ubben and his team were able to identify the massive growth potential of Adobe’s subscription-based pricing model. The “friendly” activist fund initiated a stake in the highly-diversified software company at the end of 2011. Allegedly, ValueAct Capital was arguing for a subscription-based model soon after initiating the stake, saying that this pricing model would lower entry barriers for new customers, and the company has successfully implemented ValueAct’s suggestions. Adobe Solutions generated total revenue of $4.80 billion during 2015, which increased from $4.15 billion in 2014 and $4.06 billion in 2013. Shares of Adobe are up by 25% over the past year, despite experiencing a major pullback in early 2016. The smart money sentiment towards Adobe increased in the fourth quarter of 2015, with the number of funds (among those we track) invested in the company climbing to 46 from 42 quarter-on-quarter. Stephen Mandel’s Lone Pine Capital trimmed its stake in Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE) by 36% during the December quarter, ending the year with 4.01 million shares.
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In a Schedule 13D filing, Paul Singer’s Elliott Management and its affiliates reported combined economic exposure in Qlik Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:QLIK) of approximately 10.8%. This includes 4.63 million shares of common stock, which represent 5.0% of the company’s outstanding shares, as well as an additional economic exposure of roughly 5.8% in the form of cash settled swaps with respect to 5.42 million shares. This compares with the economic exposure in the software company of approximately 8.88% disclosed in the fund’s initial 13D filing on the company, which was filed with the SEC in early March. This economic exposure involved the same amount of 4.63 million shares of common stock and cash settled swaps with respect to 3.64 million shares.
QlikTechnologies Inc. (NASDAQ:QLIK)’s shares closed sharply higher on Monday, after a Reuters article reported that the business intelligence solutions provider has commenced exploring strategic alternatives, including a potential sale. According to the report, Qlik is working with Morgan Stanley to explore a possible sale. The initial 13D filing submitted by Mr. Singer’s investment firm stipulates that Qlik’s stock is massively undervalued, stating that Qlik Technologies “operates in a highly strategic area of the technology industry with an attractive competitive position and a compelling product set, the value of which is not reflected in the Issuer’s current market value”. Earlier today, analysts at BMO Capital Markets reiterated the ‘Market Perform’ rating on Qlik and raised the price target on the stock to $30 from $26, stating a 35% likelihood that the BI solutions provider will be taken over. According to BMO Capital Markets, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:HPE), Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL), and International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) may be interested in acquiring Qlik Technologies. There were 36 money managers tracked by Insider Monkey with stakes in Qlik on December 31, hoarding up almost 26% of the company’s shares. Ken Griffin’s Citadel Advisors LLC owns 2.12 million shares of Qlik Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:QLIK) as of the end of the December quarter.
