Adobe Earnings Beat Expectations

For the fiscal fourth quarter ending Nov. 28, the maker of Photoshop, PageMaker and Acrobat software said it earned $83.3 million, or 34 cents a share. In the same period last year, it earned $40.1 million, or 17 cents a share.

Revenue at the San Jose-based company jumped 22 percent to $358.6 million from $294.7 million.

Analysts polled by Thomson First Call had on average expected Adobe to earn 32 cents a share on revenue of $345.1 million.

In the fiscal year, Adobe earned $266.3 million, or $1.10 a share, compared with $191.4 million, or 79 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 11 percent to $1.29 billion from $1.16 billion.

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Driving both the fourth-quarter and fiscal-year growth was ePaper, the electronic-document business. The segment had fourth-quarter revenue of $118.1 million, up 40 percent. Fiscal-year revenue came to $444.1 million, a 42 percent increase over fiscal 2002.

Adobe recently made acquisition moves that should bolster the place of XML in its PDF product line.

Adobe expects first-quarter earnings of 33 cents to 36 cents a share on revenue of $360 million to $380 million. Analysts were expecting 32 cents a share.

Shares of Adobe closed Thursday at $39.78, up $1.69, or 4.4 percent, on the Nasdaq Stock Market before the release of the earnings report. In extended trading, the shares were up a further $2.34, or 5.9 percent, at $42.12.

Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.