Adobe Profit Rises 24% on Strong Sales of New Products
Adobe Systems, the top maker of graphic and Web design software, reported quarterly profit rose 24%, aided by recent upgrades to its two big product lines.
Net income for the fiscal second quarter to June 1 rose to $152.5 million, or 25 cents per diluted share, from the year-earlier quarter's $123.1 million, or 20 cents per share. Excluding one-time items, Adobe reported on Thursday a profit of 37 cents, a penny above Wall Street's consensus.
Revenue rose 17% to $745.6 million, in the middle of the range of analysts' forecasts.
Wall Street was looking for a net profit of 27 cents per share, according to the average of Reuters Estimates. Excluding stock option expenses and one-time items such as acquisition costs, the consensus profit forecast was 36 cents a share.
Analysts, on average, had expected second-quarter revenue of $730.1 million, according to Reuters Estimates. Forecasts ranged from $718 million to $768 million. In March, Adobe predicted quarterly revenue of $700 million to $740 million.
For the fiscal third quarter, Adobe sees revenue in a range of $760 million to $800 million, and net profit of 28 cents to 31 cents per share. Excluding one-time items, it is aiming for 39 cents to 41 cents a share.
The net profit forecast is contained by the range of analyst estimates for the third quarter, which according to Reuters Estimates was 24 cents to 33 cents a share.
But Adobe's profit outlook excluding one-time items exceeds the prior range of third-quarter forecasts of 34 cents to 38 cents a share, according to Reuters Estimates.
In September 2006, Adobe upgraded its Acrobat document management software and the new product cycle is helping to drive revenue growth, analysts said.
In May, Adobe released version three of Creative Suite, its collection of design tools that includes Photoshop. Acrobat and Creative Suite together account for the bulk of its revenue.
