Adobe Systems Q4 Profit Tops Wall Street Estimates

(RTTNews) - Enterprise software maker Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE), Thursday reported an increase in profit for the fourth 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 fourth-quarter profit rose to $501.5 million or $1.00 per share from $399.6 million or $0.80 per share last year.

Adjusted earnings for the quarter rose to $1.26 per share from $0.90 per share last year. On average, 30 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $1.16 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Adobe said its revenue for the quarter rose to $2.01 billion from $1.61 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.95 billion for the quarter.

Digital Media segment revenue was $1.39 billion, with Creative and Document Cloud achieving record quarterly revenue of $1.16 billion and $235 million, respectively, Adobe said in a statement.

"Adobe achieved record annual and quarterly revenue, and the leverage in our business model once again drove record profit and earnings," said Mark Garrett, executive vice president and CFO, Adobe. "We are raising our fiscal 2018 revenue target and remain bullish about delivering strong 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 Experience Cloud achieved revenue of $550 million for the quarter, a 18 percent growth from last year.

ADBE closed Thursday's trading at $175.00, down $1.83 or 1.03% on the Nasdaq. The stock, however, gained $2.83 or 1.62% in the after-hours trading.