=Adobe (ADBE) reported earnings on Thur 16 March 2017 (a/h)

• Adobe (ADBE) Beats Earnings and Revenue Estimates in Q1

Adobe Systems Inc. ADBE reported first-quarter fiscal 2017 earnings of 78 cents per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 6 cents. Adjusted earnings per share exclude one-time items but include stock-based compensation expense.

Following strong fiscal first-quarter earnings, the share price was up 4% in the after-hours trading session.

Better-than-expected earnings were backed by strong demand for the company’s Creative Cloud software tools like Photoshop, which added more subscribers. Also, continued growth of Adobe Document Cloud subscriptions and strong bookings for Adobe Marketing Cloud aided the earnings growth.

Shares of Adobe have been steadily treading higher on a year-to-date basis. The stock returned 41.46% compared with the Zacks Computer Software industry’s gain of 19.78%.

Subscription comprised 82% of Adobe’s total fiscal first-quarter revenues, up 29.3% from the year-ago period. Products declined 8.8% year over year and contributed 11% to revenues, while Services & Support saw a 2.2% improvement and brought in the rest.

Revenues by Segment

Revenues from Digital Media Solutions jumped 22% year over year to $1.14 billion. TotalDigital Media ARR (Annualized Recurring Revenue) grew to $4.25 billion at the end of the fiscal first quarter, reflecting an increase of $265 million and indicating strong growth in the Creative Cloud and Document Cloud businesses.

The two major revenue contributors within the segment were Creative Cloud (CC) and Document Cloud (DC).