Bloomberg综述：Adobe分析师看空情绪创历史新高，Wells Fargo两连降与HSBC下调均为本周一/二旧闻

Analyst sentiment toward Adobe Inc. has never been lower, amid growing conviction that the maker of software for creative professionals will struggle to compete in the artificial intelligence era.

A pair of analysts downgraded the stock this week, with the two joining a growing chorus of skeptics who fear that offerings from AI firms will sap demand for products like Photoshop, diminishing Adobe’s long-term growth potential.

The week’s first downgrade came from Wells Fargo Securities, which cut the stock by two notches on Monday, moving to underweight from overweight and lowering their 12-month price target to $225 from $270. That brought the number of sell-equivalent ratings to seven, the highest on record, up from zero in mid-2025.

“More meaningful cracks are now starting to show in the Adobe growth profile,” wrote analyst Michael Turrin, pointing to the company’s third-quarter results from last month, which he described as “fairly muted.” He added that Adobe’s ability to meet its full-year targets looks “difficult given recent management commentary around deferral of any core creative price increase.”

On Tuesday, HSBC analyst Stephen Bersey downgraded the stock to hold from buy and reduced his price target to $267 from $310, saying Adobe is “a realistic candidate for AI-led disruption.”

Analysts have downgraded Adobe shares at least 15 times this year, including this week’s cuts. As a result, Adobe’s recommendation consensus — a proxy for the ratio of buy, hold, and sell ratings — has dropped to 3.16 out of five, an all-time low. The average consensus rating for companies in the S&P 500 software index is 4.65, indicating far more bullishness.

Concern about AI disruption has been a central theme for software investors this year. The sector tumbled early in 2026 as a steady cadence of product offerings from AI-native companies like OpenAI and Anthropic spurred widespread selling. While sentiment toward the sector has largely rebounded as investors view some forms of software as difficult to replace, Adobe remains a notable exception.

The stock is down nearly 30% this year, compared with a 3.7% gain for the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF, a widely used proxy for the sector. Adobe is on track for a third straight year with a decline of more than 20%, a lengthy selloff that reflects how the company is viewed as a poster child for AI disruption.

Investors are concerned that users can ditch their Photoshop subscriptions to instead use tools from companies like OpenAI or Anthropic to generate images from prompts. While Adobe offers AI features of its own, the fear is that AI competition will pressure its pricing power and weigh on margins.

This concern was at the heart of HSBC’s downgrade. Bersey sees competition from “vibe-coded clones of Adobe,” referring to software written through AI prompts. Free vibe-coded offerings from a company called ArtCraft include “versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Lightroom, Acrobat, After Effects, and InDesign,” he wrote, citing media reports.

Such competition “creates headline risks for Adobe,” he wrote, even though he sees risks to users from such services.

Here are other notable analyst calls and commentary this week:

VF Corp. got two new bulls after analysts at Piper Sandler and Truist Securities upgraded the retailer to buy-equivalent ratings this week, citing an inflection point in the company’s Vans brand, growing social media traction and an opportunity to take shelf space given broader wholesale dynamics. Last week, JPMorgan also upgraded shares of the company to neutral from underweight. Bank of America analysts double-upgraded shares of CarMax to buy from underperform, saying that the automotive retailer’s turnaround is gaining traction. Mizuho Securities downgraded shares of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to neutral from outperform as higher US mortgage rates make it less likely that the Trump administration will release the home-loan finance companies from government control by 2028. Piper Sandler cut its rating on shares of AST SpaceMobile to neutral from overweight, citing growing competition from SpaceX.