Mostly Borrowed Ideas
Equity Analyst at MBI Deep Dives
Adobe's consistently decelerating ARR growth is a bad sign that many bulls overlook, though it doesn't mean the company is going to zero. x.comÂ
Adobe is best avoided because a very low valuation comes with a highly uncertain future, making the situation amazingly complex. x.comÂ
Adobe's cash generation and growing AI subscriptions give its tentative turnaround fundamental support. It has $10.59B in free cash flow; revenue and EPS are expected to grow at double-digit rates through 2028, while AI-first ARR is up 150% year over year and Firefly ARR 40% quarter over quarter. Its Stage 1 base is attempting to break a long downtrend. x.comÂ
Adobe printed its first visible cost consequence of generative AI: cost of subscription revenue grew 24.1% versus 13.7% subscription revenue growth, cutting gross margin from 89.28% to 88.71%. Application companies rent compute rather than build data centers, so going compute-heavy shows up in cost of revenue while capex stays near 1.3% of sales. Nine-month margin is flat and the cost line isn't broken out, so this is one quarter; two or three more would confirm a trend. It trades at 14x. x.comÂ
Adobe's growth acceleration may not last because its remaining performance obligations are decelerating. @CapitalFaktory is right that Adobe is accelerating growth in 2026 to its fastest pace since 2022, but slowing RPO makes doubts about the sustainability of that acceleration reasonable. x.comÂ
Adobe is priced like an AI casualty at 11x forward earnings, yet its AI business is working. Q2 revenue grew 13% to $6.62B, guidance rose to $26.5-$26.6B of revenue and $24.35-$24.45 of EPS, and AI-first ARR more than tripled to over $500M. Part of the ARR slowdown is deliberate, deferring Creative Cloud pricing changes to push freemium, a choice that can reverse. At 14-16x forward the stock would be $340-$390. Risks: a two-year multiple compression, a CFO exit and a CEO search. x.comÂ
Adobe remains the best example of what not to buy because AI has had minimal impact and its backlog is slowing rapidly. Management chose user acquisition over monetization, as Duolingo did, leaving open whether users stay when prices rise; for now, waiting to monetize looks the same as being unable to. Free or cheaper tools that match its specialist subscriptions could cut usage, RPO and cash generation. When acceleration and margin expansion are everywhere, owning neither makes little sense. … Show more
Adobe's creative moat is under direct siege from frontier AI models, and a leadership change away from its creative franchise compounds the risk. Agent workflows disintermediate Creative Cloud at the low-to-mid end, and Adobe is spending to retain users rather than add net new subscriptions. Incoming CEO Anil Chakravarthy comes from enterprise customer experience while creative chief David Wadhwani leaves, while Creative and Marketing is 71%+ of subscription revenue. A $160 target stands. x.com … Show more
Adobe is growing almost everywhere even as its stock has fallen more than 65% over five years. Free cash flow per share rose 23% year over year, AI-first ARR more than 150%, platform MAUs over 20%, Acrobat and Express MAUs over 25% and Creative freemium MAUs over 70%. x.comÂ
Adobe's 8x P/E signals that its outlook numbers are unreliable, its capital allocation is poor and it is likely a casualty of AI. It spent all its free cash flow buying back shares at $400 and is on a direct collision course with AI; no one can say its products will be as crucial as in the last two decades. Unlike Meta in 2022, whose ads business was never impaired, there are too many unknowns. It could work or stagnate for years, so it sits in the too-hard bucket even if multiples scream buy. … Show more