Stock price when the opinion was issued
It lowered its revenue guidance for the year by 1 1/2% but the stock fell by over 20% which was an over-reaction. We should see more progress with opportunities in the enterprise market and Adobe rolling out an express product. The CEO bought $1 million in stock recently.
Buy 33 Hold 12 Sell 2
He will continue to hold -it is at an attractive valuation and growing its top line by 10% and trades at 20X earnings. It is the industry Goliath in creative space. Analysts wonder about upstarts taking away business and are questioning why they aren't monetizing AI more substantially. However it isn't communicating this and can't separate it out in the features that are included in its products for which it could charge higher prices.
The stock has been an absolute disaster due to one reason: Adobe products face serious competition. They beat quarter after quarter (expectations are not lowered ahead of time, either). The competition is not as bad as people expect. Adobe is ridiculously cheap and unfairly sold given its growth rate, EBITDA and free cash flow. Hold and wait it out as they buy back shares.
Since then, Adobe has been a show-me stock. Last week, the company showed big by delivering blow-out top- and bottom-line beats and raising its full-year forecast. For Q1-2023, EPS came in at $3.80, beating the expected $3.68. Likewise, sales of $4.66 billion beat $4.62 billion, a quarterly record, despite a strong USD. Earnings climbed 13%. Adobe raised its forecasted adjusted EPS for 2023 from $15.15 – 15.45 to $15.30 – 15.60 while Wall Street guided $15.29. Also, Adobe bought back five million shares in the quarter, and predicted 9% earnings growth for 2023. Read Adobe and Algonquin Power: Out of the Penalty Box? for our full analysis.