Adobe gains from shift to subscriptions

Article Excerpt

ADOBE SYSTEMS INC. $109 (Nasdaq symbol ADBE; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 497.2 million; Market cap: $54.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 9.9; No dividends paid since June 2005; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.adobe.com) continues to benefit from strong demand for its subscription services, particularly the Creative Cloud package of photo-editing and desktop-publishing programs. In its fiscal 2016 third quarter, which ended September 2, 2016, Adobe earned $0.75 a share, up 38.9% from $0.54 a year earlier. Revenue jumped 20.2%, to $1.46 billion from $1.22 billion. Adobe spends a high 17% of its sales on research. The investment helps it compete in a rapidly changing industry. However, the stock trades at an expensive 36.8 times the $2.96 a share the company will likely earn for all of fiscal 2016. Moreover, it gets 40% of its revenue from Europe and Asia, and the high U.S. dollar continues to hurt the contribution of its overseas businesses. Adobe is still a hold…