Adobe Sales Slide Ahead of Creative Suite Upgrade

Adobe Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) weighed in Monday with revenue that just missed expectations, as sales slowed in expectation of a new, updated release of the company's Creative Suite software programs.

The revenue miss drove the shares lower, even as the company boosted its full-year earnings and revenue targets.

For the fiscal first quarter, the maker of Flash, Photoshop and InDesign software weighed in with net income that fell to $185.2 million, or 37 cents a share, compared with year-ago profit of $234.6 million, or 46 cents a share.

On an adjusted basis, earnings per share fell to 57 cents, compared with 58 cents a share in the first quarter of last year.

Revenue rose to just under $1.045 billion, compared with revenue of $1.03 billion, one year ago.

The results were mixed, as revenue narrowly missed analyst consensus. The Street had forecast earnings 57 cents a share on revenue of $1.054 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

"Our strategy is to be the leader in Digital Media and Digital Marketing. With the upcoming release of our Creative Suite and Creative Cloud offerings, and with the momentum we have in Digital Marketing, we remain confident about our ability to drive strong revenue and earnings growth," said Shantanu Narayen, Adobe’s president and chief executive officer, in a statement.

For the second quarter, the software company expects earnings in the range of 57 to 61 cents a share on revenue between $1.09 billion and $1.14 billion.  That forecast brackets analyst predictions for earnings of 60 cents a share on revenue of $1.1 billion.

Adobe boosted its full-year adjusted earnings target to between $2.38 and $2.48 a share on revenue growth in the range of 6% and 8%.  That compares to the earlier forecast for full-year earnings between $2.37 and $2.47 and revenue growth between 4% and 6%.

Shares of Adobe rose 2% to close the session Monday at $34.51 a share.  The stock was down $1.57, or 4.6%, in after-hours trading.