Adobe Reports Record Q4 and Fiscal 2020 Revenue

Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) today reported financial results for its fourth quarter and fiscal year ended Nov. 27, 2020. In its fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020, Adobe achieved record quarterly revenue of $3.42 billion, which represents 14 percent year-over-year growth. In fiscal year 2020, Adobe achieved record annual revenue of $12.87 billion, which represents 15 percent year-over-year growth.

“Adobe delivered record Q4 and FY20 revenue performance amidst an unprecedented macroeconomic environment,” said Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO, Adobe. “As the undisputed leader in three growing categories - creativity, digital documents and customer experience management - we are well-positioned to capture the massive market opportunity ahead of us in 2021 and beyond.”

“The resilience of our business, our operational discipline and ability to derive insights from real-time data has enabled us to thrive in 2020,” said John Murphy, executive vice president and CFO, Adobe. “Our record Q4 cash flow demonstrates the strength of our operating model, and we look forward to delivering strong top- and bottom-line growth in 2021.”

In its fourth quarter of fiscal year 2020, Adobe created a new segment called “Publishing and Advertising,” which combines the Publishing segment with Advertising Cloud, which was previously included in the Digital Experience segment. This realignment resulted from a change Adobe made in the fourth quarter to the way the company manages its Digital Experience business to better reflect the strategic shift related to Advertising Cloud and to align with our overall core value proposition of delivering on customer experience management. Advertising Cloud revenue and cost of revenue has been reclassified on the income statement from “Subscription” to “Services and other.” Financial information for fiscal years 2018, 2019 and 2020 has been revised to maintain comparability.

A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP results is provided at the end of this press release and on Adobe’s website.

Adobe Provides Fiscal Year and First Quarter 2021 Financial Targets

The table below summarizes Adobe’s first quarter fiscal year 2021 targets, which factor in the following:

A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP targets is provided at the end of this press release.

Adobe will webcast its fourth quarter fiscal year 2020 earnings conference call, together with an online financial analyst meeting, today at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time from its investor relations website: www.adobe.com/ADBE. Earnings documents, including Adobe management’s prepared slides and an investor datasheet are posted to Adobe’s investor relations website in advance of the conference call for reference. A reconciliation between GAAP and non-GAAP earnings results and financial targets is also provided on the website.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including those related to business momentum and strategy, the financial impacts of the Workfront acquisition, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and results of operations, our market opportunity, market trends, current macroeconomic conditions, revenue, operating margin, seasonality, annualized recurring revenue, tax rate on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis, earnings per share on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis, and share count, all of which involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Factors that might cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to: failure to compete effectively, failure to develop, acquire, market and offer products and services that meet customer requirements, introduction of new technology, information security and privacy, potential interruptions or delays in hosted services provided by us or third parties, macroeconomic conditions and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, risks associated with cyber-attacks, complex sales cycles, risks related to the timing of revenue recognition from our subscription offerings, fluctuations in subscription renewal rates, failure to realize the anticipated benefits of past or future acquisitions, failure to effectively manage critical strategic third-party business relationships, changes in accounting principles and tax regulations, uncertainty in the financial markets and economic conditions in the countries where we operate, and other various risks associated with being a multinational corporation. For a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties, please refer to Adobe’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for our fiscal year 2019 ended Nov. 29, 2019, and Adobe's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q issued in fiscal year 2020.

The financial information set forth in this press release reflects estimates based on information available at this time. These amounts could differ from actual reported amounts stated in Adobe’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for our year ended Nov. 27, 2020, which Adobe expects to file in January 2021. Adobe assumes no obligation to, and does not currently intend to, update these forward-looking statements.

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

©2020 Adobe. All rights reserved. Adobe and the Adobe logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe (or one of its subsidiaries) in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The following table shows Adobe’s GAAP fourth quarter fiscal year 2020 tax rate reconciled to the non-GAAP tax rate included in this release.

Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Targets

(Shares in millions)

The following tables show Adobe's first quarter fiscal year 2021 financial targets reconciled to the non-GAAP financial targets included in this release.

(Shares in millions)

The following tables show Adobe's annual fiscal year 2021 financial targets reconciled to the non-GAAP financial targets included in this release.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Information

Adobe continues to provide all information required in accordance with GAAP, but believes evaluating its ongoing operating results may not be as useful if an investor is limited to reviewing only GAAP financial measures. Adobe uses non-GAAP financial information to evaluate its ongoing operations and for internal planning and forecasting purposes. Adobe's management does not itself, nor does it suggest that investors should, consider such non-GAAP financial measures in isolation from, or as a substitute for, financial information prepared in accordance with GAAP. Adobe presents such non-GAAP financial measures in reporting its financial results to provide investors with an additional tool to evaluate Adobe's operating results. Adobe believes these non-GAAP financial measures are useful because they allow for greater transparency with respect to key metrics used by management in its financial and operational decision-making. This allows institutional investors, the analyst community and others to better understand and evaluate our operating results and future prospects in the same manner as management.

Adobe's management believes it is useful for itself and investors to review, as applicable, both GAAP information as well as non-GAAP measures, which may exclude items such as stock-based and deferred compensation expenses, restructuring and other charges, amortization of intangibles, investment gains and losses, the related tax impact of all of these items, income tax adjustments, and the income tax effect of the non-GAAP pre-tax adjustments from the provision for income taxes. Adobe uses these non-GAAP measures in order to assess the performance of Adobe's business and for planning and forecasting in subsequent periods. Whenever such a non-GAAP measure is used, Adobe provides a reconciliation of the non-GAAP financial measure to the most closely applicable GAAP financial measure. Investors are encouraged to review the related GAAP financial measures and the reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure as detailed above.