Adobe's Price Crumbles on Outlook

Updated from June 12

Shares in Adobe Systems' (ADBE) plunged more than 10% on Friday as the company's tepid guidance drew several downgrades and less-than-enthusiastic analyst reports.

The stock drop and the analyst reports followed the software maker's quarterly results on Thursday. Although Adobe beat Wall Street expectations, it warned that its third-quarter earnings will be below analysts' projections.

In issuing their negative reports on Adobe, analysts cited the summer quarter, typically a seasonally slow one for Adobe, as well as valuation concerns. Adobe's stock climbed 116% from early August to Thursday.

"At current price levels, we would encourage investors to take some profits," said Amy Feng, who covers Adobe for JMP Securities, in a report issued Friday. (JMP does not have investment-banking business with Adobe.)

In recent trading on Friday, shares in the software maker were off $4.18, or 11.62%, to $31.80.

Adobe's per-share earnings jumped 23% in the software makers' second quarter, despite nearly flat sales.

In its quarter ended May 30, Adobe earned $64.25 million, or 27 cents a share. That was up from the year-ago quarter, when the company earned $54.3 million, or 22 cents a share.

The company's overall revenues increased less than 1% year over year to $320.15 million.

The results beat analysts' expectations and came in at the high end of Adobe's guidance. But the company warned that it might not meet analysts' expectations in the current quarter.

Analysts polled by Thomson First Call were expecting the company to earn 26 cents a share on $312.87 million in revenue. In March, Adobe projected it would earn between 24 cents and 27 cents a share in the second quarter on $300 million to $315 million in revenue. A month later, the company raised its guidance, saying that it expected to earn between 24 cents to 28 cents on revenue of $305 million to $320 million.