Adobe Q3 Revenue Hits $6.76B, Raises Full-Year Guidance and Announces CEO Transition

Source: MarketBeat Read Time: 6 min

Stock Ticker: ADBE (+1.37%)

Key Points

• Strong Q3 Performance: Adobe reported revenue of $6.76 billion, up 13% year over year, with non-GAAP EPS rising 15% to $6.13. Annual recurring revenue reached $27.5 billion, while AI-first ending ARR exceeded $650 million, growing more than 150%.
• Leadership Transition: Anil Chakravarthy will become Adobe's president and CEO on December 1, while current CEO Shantanu Narayen will move to executive chair. Chakravarthy plans to focus on "agentic software" across Adobe's creative, productivity, and customer-experience businesses.
• Raised Fiscal 2026 Outlook: Adobe increased its full-year revenue forecast to $26.576 billion–$26.626 billion and non-GAAP EPS guidance to $24.45–$24.50, supported by adoption of Firefly, Acrobat AI, and enterprise AI products.

Q3 Financial Results

Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE) reported third-quarter fiscal 2026 revenue of $6.76 billion, up 13% year over year as reported and 12% in constant currency.

Chair and CEO Shantanu Narayen said GAAP earnings per share rose 11% from a year earlier to $4.62, while non-GAAP EPS increased 15% to $6.13. The company ended the quarter with $27.5 billion in annual recurring revenue, up 11.2% year over year, and generated a quarterly record of $2.52 billion in operating cash flow.

Narayen noted that Adobe's AI-first ending ARR exceeded $650 million and grew more than 150% year over year. The company reported more than 1 billion monthly active users across its businesses, including more than 100 million creative freemium users, which grew more than 70% year over year.

Leadership Transition Set for December

Adobe announced that Anil Chakravarthy, currently president of customer experience and orchestration, will become the company's next president, chief executive officer, and a member of its board effective December 1.

Narayen, who has spent 29 years at Adobe, will serve as executive chair and said he will work with Chakravarthy to support the transition.

"Anil is the right person to chart Adobe's growth in this agentic era," Narayen said, citing Chakravarthy's experience building products across Adobe's businesses.

Chakravarthy said he sees an opportunity for Adobe to lead in "agentic software" across creativity, productivity, and customer experience. He noted that customers are seeking software that supports conversational and traditional interfaces, offers access to various AI models, incorporates enterprise context and data, and delivers predictable results.

In response to analyst questions, Chakravarthy said his experience leading Adobe's enterprise field operations since 2020 has given him exposure to all of the company's product categories and customer segments, from individuals and small businesses to more than 20,000 enterprise customers.

Document and Creative Businesses Post Subscription Growth

Subscription revenue from Adobe's business professionals and consumers segment was $1.91 billion, up 16% as reported and 15% in constant currency.

The company said Acrobat plus Express monthly active users surpassed 900 million, rising more than 25% year over year, while Acrobat AI Assistant monthly active users doubled sequentially.

Chakravarthy highlighted new Acrobat capabilities powered by the Adobe Productivity Agent. According to the company, the offering...