Topic: Growth Stocks

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, June 20, 2014

Article Excerpt

ADOBE SYSTEMS INC., $72.61, Nasdaq symbol ADBE, rose 9% this week after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results. In its fiscal 2014 second quarter, which ended May 30, 2014, Adobe earned $186.3 million, up 1.9% from $182.9 million a year earlier. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose 2.8%, to $0.37 from $0.36. That beat the consensus forecast of $0.30. Revenue gained 5.7%, to $1.07 billion from $1.01 billion. That also beat the consensus forecast of $1.03 billion. The improved results are mainly because Adobe is signing up more subscribers to its Creative Cloud package of photo-editing and desktop-publishing programs. The company added 464,000 Creative Cloud customers in the quarter and currently has a total of 2.3 million. It now expects to end fiscal 2014 with 3.3 million users, up from its earlier target of 3.0 million. Selling these programs as ongoing subscriptions instead of one-time purchases hurts the company’s short-term growth, but it should provide more predictable revenue streams. Subscriptions and support services…