Adobe Q3 Profit Rises, Tops Wall Street View

(RTTNews) - Enterprise software maker Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE), Thursday reported an increase in profit for the third quarter, as revenues rose reflecting strong cloud revenue growth. The Photoshop maker's earnings topped Wall Street estimates as did revenues.

San Jose, California-based Adobe's third-quarter profit rose to $666.3 million or $1.34 per share from $419.6 million or $0.84 per share last year.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter rose to $1.73 per share from $1.10 per share last year. On average, 28 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.69 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Adobe said its revenue for the quarter rose to $2.29 billion from $1.84 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $2.25 billion for the quarter.

Digital Media segment revenue was to $1.61 billion, with Creative revenue growing to 1.36 billion, and Document Cloud achieving record revenue of $249 million, which represents 21 percent year-over-year growth, Adobe said in a statement.

"Adobe continues to inspire creativity and drive business transformation as reflected in our record Q3 results," said Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO, Adobe. "Students, creatives, enterprises and governments trust Creative Cloud, Document Cloud and Experience Cloud to create and deliver the transformative digital experiences required to compete today."

Adobe has been focusing on cloud based subscriptions to boost revenue. Its Creative Cloud software as a service offering gives users access to a range of its software, for a monthly or annual subscription. Customers prefer the cloud route instead of buying individual products and software suites for a licensee fee.

Digital Experience segment revenue was $614 million, which represents 21 percent year-over-year growth. Digital Experience subscription revenue grew 25 percent year-over-year in the quarter.

ADBE closed Thursday's trading at $268.52, up $0.73 or 0.27% on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, dropped $3.53 or 1.12% in the after-hours trading.