Topic: Growth Stocks

ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $80.73 – Nasdaq symbol ADBE

ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $80.73 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; TSINetwork Rating: Average) (408-536-6000; www.adobe.com; Shares outstanding: 497.6 million; Market cap: $40.4 billion; No dividends paid) makes software that lets computer users create, edit and share documents in the popular PDF format. Graphic designers also use its programs to create print publications and web pages.

In its fiscal 2015 second quarter, which ended May 29, 2015, Adobe earned $0.48 a share, up 29.7% from $0.37 a year earlier. Revenue gained 8.8%, to a record $1.2 billion from $1.1 billion.

The company continues to shift away from selling software as a one-time purchase and toward a subscription model. It now gets 72% of its revenue from recurring sources, compared to 55% a year ago.

In the latest quarter, Adobe added 639,000 Creative Cloud subscribers (net of cancellations), up 38% from a year earlier. This service now has a total of 4.6 million users. Adobe is also seeing strong demand for its newer cloud-based offerings, such as Document Cloud, which lets users create, manage and sign online documents for a $15-a-month fee.

The company spends a high 18% of its revenue on research, which helps it compete in its rapidly changing industry. However, the stock now trades at an expensive 40.0 times the $2.05 a share Adobe will likely earn in all of fiscal 2015. Moreover, that earnings estimate could suffer if the U.S. dollar keeps strengthening; overseas customers supply over 40% of Adobe’s revenue.

Adobe is still a hold.

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