Company Is Targeting Additional Growth in Digital Media Segment for Fiscal 2016

Adobe said Creative Cloud subscriptions grew by 833,000 in its fourth fiscal quarter, which ended November 27, reaching 6.17 million.

That subscription growth in the fourth quarter set a record for Creative Cloud, eclipsing the 684,000 subscribers added in the previous quarter. In fact, each of the last three quarters has set a new record for the volume of new subscribers to Adobe's Creative Cloud offering. 

"Overall Creative Cloud retention remains strong," said Adobe Executive VP and CFO Mark Garrett during a conference call with investors yesterday.

CEO Shantanu Narayen cited "good" migration of existing customers from perpetual licenses (CS6 and earlier) to CC subscriptions. "Q4 was also characterized by internationnal adoption accelerating in countries like Japan and Germany," he said. "Hobbyists and consumers are adopting the photography plan [which includes only Photoshop and Lightroom] and education continues to grow."

Not much was said specifically about the performance of the Adobe Stock offering, and Adobe did not break out specific goals for the service. "We achieved our revenue target [for Adobe Stock] for the year and are focused on driving attachment of Stock subscriptions with existing and new Creative Cloud subscribers," Garrett said. "So far, so good," Narayen added later. "We've added video files right now, which I think is going to be important, and with the November release of the Creative Suite products, we've added integration" of Adobe Stock directly in the programs' interfaces, he noted.

Companywide, revenue grew to $4.8 billion, a sizable increase from $4.2 billion in fiscal 2014, and net income grew dramatically from $268.4 million in fiscal 2014 to $629.6 million this year. The company is targeting overall revenue to reach $5.7 billion in fiscal 2016, with 20 percent growth in the company's Digital Media segment, which includes Creative Cloud.

And CEO Shantanu Narayen took a moment at the beginning of the presentation to put Premiere Pro in the spotlight, noting that two high-profile feature films cut in Premiere Pro — Hail, Caesar! and Deadpool — will be released early next year.