SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Adobe Systems posted record revenue for its first quarter of fiscal 2018 along with a surge in profits, and offered Wall Street a rosy outlook, a strong financial performance that caused the tech company's shares to rocket higher Thursday afternoon.
In extended trades after the stock markets were closed for the day on Thursday, Adobe soared 3.7 percent.
"Adobe's outstanding growth is driven by enabling our customers to be more creative, work smarter and transform their businesses," Shantanu Narayen, Adobe's chief executive officer.
For the first fiscal quarter of 2018 that ended in early March, profits totaled $583.1 million on revenue of $2.08 billion. Compared with the similar three-month period of a year ago, profits were up 46.3 percent and revenue was up 23.6 percent.
Excluding certain one-time items, per-share profits for the first quarter were $1.55 a share, compared with Wall Street's expectations of $1.44. Analysts had anticipated revenue would total $2.05 billion.
Adobe has enticed Wall Street because revenue has soared after the company transitioned its offerings to the cloud. So far in 2018, Adobe shares have jumped 24.9 percent, while the tech-focused Nasdaq has risen 8.4 percent.
"Fiscal year 2018 is off to a strong start for Adobe as we continue to successfully execute against our strategy," Narayen said in comments to analysts during a conference call to discuss the earnings results.
Wall Street also embraced Adobe's shares after the digital media and marketing software giant offered an outlook for 2018 that greatly surpassed analysts' predictions.
"We drove strong performance across our product offerings and geographies during the quarter," Mark Garrett, Adobe's chief financial officer, said during the conference call.
