Adobe made $1.68 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2017, continuing the growth trend the company kicked off when it stopped selling software and instead started renting it through monthly and annual subscriptions.
That $1.68 billion figure is a record for Adobe, but the company has reported “record” quarterly revenue every three months since the second quarter of 2015, so don’t let the term get you too excited.
While Adobe’s subscription businesses are growing, it’s increasingly unclear how many people actually subscribe to and use Adobe’s flagship services, like Photoshop. Last year the company stopped disclosing how many people pay to use its creative apps under the “Creative Cloud” umbrella. Adobe had 4.252 million of them as of March 2016.
Analysts had expected Adobe to report about $30 million less in revenue for the first 2017 quarter. Analysts also estimated that Adobe would report about $0.87 earnings per share — it exceeded that estimate on a Non-GAAP basis by seven cents. In Q1 2016, Adobe reported revenues of $1.38 billion.
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Investors drove Adobe’s stock price up more than three percent today after the company posted its financial results.
Correction 2:03 p.m. PT: Adobe reported $0.94 earnings per share, exceeding analysts’ estimates. An earlier version of this story said it only met estimates.
