Adobe Reports Inline, but Forecast Is Weak

Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: ADBE) reported fiscal 2012 third quarter earnings after markets closed today. The software company reported adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of $0.58 on revenue of $1.08 billion. In the same period a year ago, the company reported adjusted EPS of $0.55 on revenue of $1.01 billion. Second-quarter results compare to the Thomson Reuters consensus estimates for EPS of $0.58 and $1.1 billion in revenue.

Adobe guided fourth fiscal quarter revenue at $1.075 billion to $1.125 billion and adjusted EPS at $0.53 to $0.58. The company’s guidance assumes the addition of 125,000 new subscribers to its Creative Cloud service.

The company’s guidance fell well short of the consensus estimates. Thomson Reuters had a consensus estimate for EPS of $0.67 on revenue of $1.21 billion.

The company’s president/CEO said:

Customers globally are adopting our new Creative Cloud subscription offering more quickly than we projected. We are the leader in the fast-growing Digital Marketing category with 40 percent year-over-year Digital Marketing Suite revenue growth this quarter.

The company said that currency translation effects cost it about $9 million in revenue for the quarter.

The company’s shares fell about 3% following the earnings release, but have gained all of that back in the last few minutes. Shares are down less than 0.1% in after-hours trading, at $33.30 in a 52-week range of $22.89 to $34.78.

Paul Ausick