Adobe Soundly Beats Earnings Forecasts and Declares a 2 for 1 stock split
Actual earnings.61 Expected.52 Whisper number.55
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Adobe Systems Inc.(NasdaqNM:ADBE - news), the largest maker of Web publishing software, on Thursday reported third quarter earnings that handily beat expectations, and set a two-for-one stock split.
Adobe reported net income of $78.3 million, or 61 cents per diluted share, from $57.2 million or 44 cents a share in the third quarter of 1999. Excluding investment gains and losses, diluted earnings per share were 57 cents.
The San Jose, Calif.-based company had been expected to report earnings per share of 52 cents, according to analysts' consensus forecasts compiled by First Call/Thomson Financial.
Adobe's third quarter revenues were $328.9 million, a 26-percent rise compared to $260.9 million reported in the year-ago quarter.
In after-hours trade Adobe rose to $130 each, after closing at $125-3/8, down 9/16 on the Nasdaq. The stock has risen steadily from a 12-month low of $47-1/2 and is off its 12-month high of $143-5/16 in July.
``The Web is creating explosive demand for content, and our Q3 results showed that Adobe is in an exceptionally strong position to capitalize on this trend,'' said John Warnock, Adobe chairman and chief executive officer, in a statement.
The company also said it was targeting year-over-year revenue growth of at least 25 percent for 2001 and reiterated the same growth expectations for the fourth quarter.
Company executives said adoption of the latest version of Adobe Photoshop were better than past upgrades. They also highlighted a new licensing system for its Acrobat software that they said allows companies more flexibility.
Adobe added that it was targeting gross margin of 93 percent and an operating margin of 31 percent for the fourth quarter and for fiscal year 2001.
It said the stock split would be payable on Oct. 24 to stockholders of record as of Oct. 2. |
