Adobe Projects Profit That Tops Estimates on Marketing Software

(Bloomberg) -- Adobe Inc. gave a profit forecast for the current quarter that topped analysts’ estimates as more customers sign up for subscriptions to its digital marketing and customer analysis software.

Sales will be about $3.88 billion in the period ending in August, the San Jose, California-based company said Thursday in a statement. Analysts, on average, estimated $3.83 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profit, excluding some items, will be about $3 a share. Analysts projected $2.90. Digital experience subscription sales will rise 25% and digital medial software revenue will increase 22%, the company said.

Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen has pitched new creative software tools to continue Adobe’s steady 20% revenue growth. The company last year introduced a version of its popular app, Illustrator, for Apple Inc.’s iPad, to offer its software on more devices being used by professionals and hobbyists. Document Cloud products, including PDF and electronic signature software, have surged with millions working from home. A pickup in corporate spending on information technology coming out of the pandemic is driving sales of Adobe’s marketing and data-analytics products, said Anurag Rana, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

“Meanwhile, we still expect the need for commerce software to remain strong, as clients spend more on capabilities to sell products digitally,” he added in a report before the results were released.

Shares gained about 2.5% in extended trading after closing at $551.36 in New York. The stock, after faltering early in 2021, gained momentum in June and now has jumped 10% this year.

In the fiscal second quarter, sales increased 23% to $3.84 billion, and profit, excluding certain items, was $3.03 a share, compared with the average estimates of $3.73 billion in revenue and earnings of $2.82 a share.

Revenue from digital media, which includes the creative and document cloud units, jumped 25% to $2.79 billion in the period ended June 4. Sales in digital experience, which includes marketing software, increased 21% to $938 million.

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