Adobe (ADBE)
Forward P/E is 9.24x against a peer median of 26.86x, a ratio of just 0.34x — Adobe is the cheapest name in its peer set by a wide margin, on a trailing P/E of only 13.85x and a PEG of 0.66. Latest-quarter revenue grew 12.9% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), so growth is positive and not collapsing while the multiple prices in decline. Delivered demand check: the Application software group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 14.9% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. On peer-median, growth and PEG evidence together, the discount is far larger than the delivered numbers justify.
What would change this label: Moves toward FAIRLY PRICED or OVERVALUED if revenue growth falls below +5% year over year for two consecutive quarters, or if forward earnings estimates are cut enough to lift the forward P/E above ~14x without a price fall. The UNDERVALUED case strengthens if growth holds at or above ~13% while the forward P/E stays below 12x, or weakens to a value-trap warning if growth turns negative.
Adobe's shares cost about 9 times the profit expected next year, while similar software companies cost about 27 times — yet Adobe is still growing sales at about 13% a year. That is a very large discount for a profitable, still-growing business. On the numbers in this snapshot, the shares look cheap rather than fairly priced.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window Adobe returned -52.96% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for Adobe: -71.9% (2021-11-19 to 2026-06-25). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 9.24x against a peer median of 26.86x, a ratio of just 0.34x — Adobe is the cheapest name in its peer set by a wide margin, on a trailing P/E of only 13.85x and a PEG of 0.66. Latest-quarter revenue grew 12.9% year over year (PRIMARY, EDGAR), so growth is positive and not collapsing while the multiple prices in decline. Delivered demand check: the Application software group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 14.9% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. On peer-median, growth and PEG evidence together, the discount is far larger than the delivered numbers justify. The company’s forward P/E is 9.2× against a peer median of 26.9×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Application software group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was 14.9% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. Latest-quarter sales growth was +12.9% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adobe (ADBE) | $248.09 | 9.2× | 13.8× |
| CDNS | $336.92 | 35.8× | 67.0× |
| SNPS | $474.42 | 26.9× | 84.1× |
| DDOG | $280.37 | 105.7× | 571.6× |
| INTU | $328.07 | 13.8× | 19.9× |
| WDAY | $205.46 | 17.0× | 42.3× |
| Peer median | 26.9× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
Gross margin = gross profit divided by sales, from SEC filings.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Aug 2026 2026-08-28 | $6.8B | 88.7% | $1.8B | 4.62 | $2.4B |
| Q/E May 2026 2026-05-29 | $6.6B | 89.2% | $1.7B | 4.25 | $2.1B |
| Q/E Feb 2026 2026-02-27 | $6.4B | 89.6% | $1.9B | 4.60 | $2.9B |
| Q/E Nov 2025 2025-11-28 | $6.2B | 89.5% | $1.9B | — | $3.1B |
| Q/E Aug 2025 2025-08-29 | $6.0B | 89.3% | $1.8B | 4.18 | $2.1B |
| Q/E May 2025 2025-05-30 | $5.9B | 89.1% | $1.7B | 3.94 | $2.1B |
| Q/E Feb 2025 2025-02-28 | $5.7B | 89.1% | $1.8B | 4.14 | $2.5B |
| Q/E Nov 2024 2024-11-29 | $5.6B | 89.0% | $1.7B | — | $2.9B |
| Q/E Aug 2024 2024-08-30 | $5.4B | 89.8% | $1.7B | 3.76 | $2.0B |
| Q/E May 2024 2024-05-31 | $5.3B | 88.7% | $1.6B | 3.49 | $1.9B |
| Q/E Mar 2024 2024-03-01 | $5.2B | 88.6% | $620M | 1.36 | $1.1B |
| Q/E Dec 2023 2023-12-01 | $5.0B | 87.4% | $1.5B | — | $1.6B |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | ADOBE INC. |
| Chief executive | Shantanu Narayen (source: https://news.adobe.com/news/2026/09/adobe-announces-anil-chakravarthy-to-become-president-and-ceo) |
| Sector | Technology — Application Software — sells creative-design, document and digital-experience software, largely by subscription |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $248.09 |
| Market value (market cap) | $96.7B — share price times shares outstanding of 389,200,000 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $26.0B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $7.3B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $10.6B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Aug 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | -52.96% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -71.9% (2021-11-19 to 2026-06-25) |
What we could not verify
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Adobe announced Anil Chakravarthy will become President and CEO effective December 1, 2026, with Shantanu Narayen transitioning to Executive Chair then; Narayen is therefore the current CEO as of 2026-10-28.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000796343.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000796343.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/ADBE/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.