Adobe Q4 Profit Beats Street View - Update

(RTTNews) - Enterprise software maker Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE), Thursday reported an increase in profit for the fourth quarter, as revenues jumped 23 percent reflecting strong cloud revenue growth. The Photoshop maker's earnings topped Wall Street estimates as did revenues.

San Jose, California-based Adobe's fourth-quarter profit rose to $399.6 million or $0.80 per share from $222.7 million or $0.44 per share last year.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter rose to $0.90 per share from $0.62 per share last year. On average, 26 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.86 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Adobe said its revenue for the quarter rose 23 percent to $1.61 billion from $1.31 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.59 billion for the quarter.

Digital Media segment revenue was a record $1.08 billion, with Creative revenue growing 33 percent year-over-year to $886 million, Adobe said in a statement.

CFO Mark Garrett said, "Across our business, Adobe had a strong 2016 as we met or exceeded all of our key financial targets for the year. We are uniquely positioned as a cloud provider to deliver both top line and bottom line growth."

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.

Adobe Marketing Cloud achieved record revenue of $465 million for the quarter, a 32 percent growth from last year.

ADBE closed Thursday's trading at $105.10, down $0.71 or 0.67%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further dropped $0.10 or 0.10% in the after-hours trade.