Adobe Riding High

Updated from 4:36 p.m. EST

SAN FRANCISCO -- Adobe Systems(ADBE Quote) delivered shining fourth-quarter earnings Monday and boasted that it would do even better next quarter.

The company also boosted its share-buyback program.

The San Jose, Calif., software developer took in $911.2 million, up 34% from revenue of $682.2 million in the same quarter of last year. Analysts were looking for a top line of $887.3 million, according to Thomson Financial.

EPS was 38 cents on net income of $222.2 million, vs. 30 cents on a net of $183.2 million in the year-ago period.

At EPS of 49 cents, excluding items, Adobe beat the consensus estimate by a penny.

Shares were up $2.77, or 6.8%, to $43.67 in after-hours trading.

The company is targeting first-quarter revenue of $855 million to $885 million and EPS, excluding items, of 44 cents to 46 cents. Analysts were anticipating revenue of $835.8 million and EPS of 42 cents.

The maker of Acrobat and other graphics software attributed the strong quarter to healthy sales of its Creative Suite 3 products.

Adobe added 30 million shares to its stock repurchasing program. The company had bought back 11 million shares during the quarter, CFO Mark Garrett said on the conference call. Adobe has bought back 17.7 million shares of the previous 20 million-share program.