Adobe, The Secret AI Play? Why This Analyst Just Bumped Up Price Target

Adobe Systems, Inc. ADBE is less talked of as an artificial intelligence play but an analyst at Piper Sandler thinks the multimedia and creativity software company will benefit big from the technology.

The Adobe Systems Analyst: Brent Bracelin maintained an Overweight rating and increased the price target from $415 to $500.

The Adobe Systems Thesis: Piper Sandler's conviction in its bull thesis on Adobe has increased, analyst Bracelin said in a note. The analyst premised his optimism on an accelerating pace of innovation evident from new Gen AI features getting weaved into Acrobat, Express, Photoshop and Premiere Pro during May.

Express and Firefly could unlock a much larger non-technical user base, he said. He noted that Firefly, revealed in late March, has seen users exceeding one million, plus, per month in the first quarter since launch.

Additionally, strong third-party data point toward improving Adobe.com demand metrics, the analyst said. He noted that the average monthly active user count improved 20% year-over-year for the May-ending quarter to 208 million compared to the 2% drop in the previous quarter.

Healthy and improving third-party data suggest an upward bias to the digital media annualized recurring revenue guidance of 8.8%, according to the analyst.

As such, Bracelin increased the revenue and earnings per share estimates for the current fiscal and the next.

Adobe Systems Price Action: In premarket trading on Thursday, Adobe shares rose 2.65% to $429.40, according to data from Benzinga Pro.