Adobe Lifted Its Annual Revenue and EPS Targets. It Left the ARR Growth Target Alone.

by Henry Nakamura · September 11, 2026

Earnings Reporter, Earnings Dispatch

Adobe reported results for its fiscal third quarter, which ended Aug. 28, 2026, on Thursday, Sept. 10, under the headline "Adobe Reports Record Q3 Results." The release itself does not state a time of day; the first session in which the market could trade on it was Friday, Sept. 11. Revenue for the quarter was $6.76 billion, which the company said was growth of 13 percent year over year and 12 percent in constant currency. The company also published revised annual targets for fiscal 2026 that sit above the ones it gave three months earlier.

The earnings lines were labelled by the company as follows. GAAP earnings per share were $4.62. Non-GAAP earnings per share were $6.13. GAAP operating income was $2.35 billion and non-GAAP operating income was $2.97 billion. Those are the four figures the release states; readers should treat the GAAP and non-GAAP pairs as separate measures rather than alternate renderings of the same one.

Beneath the total, Adobe reported subscription revenue of $6.58 billion, up 14 percent year over year and 13 percent in constant currency. The release gives the two customer groups separately: Creative and Marketing Professionals at $4.65 billion, up 13 percent in dollars and 12 percent in constant currency, and Business Professionals and Consumers at $1.91 billion, up 16 percent in dollars and 15 percent in constant currency. The two group figures as published do not add exactly to the stated subscription total, so the $6.58 billion above is Adobe's own number and not a sum taken by this desk. The smaller of the two groups grew faster, which is the pattern Adobe has been pointing to as it pushes lower-priced and free entry points.

Two recurring-revenue measures came with the release. Total ARR stood at $27.50 billion. Remaining performance obligations were $22.16 billion, of which the company said 67 percent was current. Adobe also disclosed that what it labels AI-first ARR grew more than 150 percent year over year; the company did not attach a dollar figure to that line in the release, so the percentage stands on its own.

Adobe said it had passed one billion monthly active users across its creativity and productivity products. Chair and Chief Executive Shantanu Narayen said in the release: "Adobe delivered record Q3 results, reflecting the strength of our AI innovation, expanding customer reach and leadership across creativity, productivity and customer experience. Reaching a landmark of more than one billion monthly active users is a defining moment for Adobe, and I have confidence that Anil will build on this momentum to drive Adobe's next chapter of growth and innovation in the AI era."

The more consequential part of the document, for anyone tracking the fiscal year, is the comparison between the fiscal 2026 annual targets published Thursday and the ones Adobe published on June 11 with its second-quarter results. In June the company targeted total revenue of $26.50 billion to $26.60 billion. On Thursday it targeted $26.576 billion to $26.626 billion. The bottom of the range moved up by $76 million and the top by $26 million, so the range both rose and narrowed.

The earnings targets moved the same direction. GAAP earnings per share for fiscal 2026 went from a June target range of $17.90 to $18.00 to a September range of $18.12 to $18.17, a lift of 22 cents at the bottom and 17 cents at the top. Non-GAAP earnings per share went from $24.35 to $24.45 in June to $24.45 to $24.50 in September, a lift of 10 cents at the bottom and five cents at the top.

What did not move is at least as informative. Adobe's total ending ARR growth target for fiscal 2026 was 10.2 percent year over year in June, and it was 10.2 percent year over year on Thursday. The non-GAAP operating margin target was approximately 45.0 percent in June and 45.0 percent on Thursday. The company raised the revenue and earnings ranges without changing the recurring-revenue growth rate it is steering toward.

Steve Day, senior vice president and interim chief financial officer, framed the change this way in the release: "Adobe delivered double-digit revenue and EPS growth in Q3 and we're raising full year revenue and EPS targets. We are expanding our user base through a freemium strategy and deepening engagement with agentic experiences to deliver long-term durable growth." Those raised targets are forecasts the company has chosen to publish, not results it has booked.

For the fourth quarter specifically, Adobe targeted revenue of $6.80 billion to $6.85 billion, GAAP earnings per share of $4.65 to $4.70, and non-GAAP earnings per share of $6.30 to $6.35. All three are targets the company published rather than results it has booked, and the GAAP and non-GAAP earnings ranges are separate measures rather than two renderings of one.

On the cash side, Adobe reported cash flow from operations of $2.52 billion in the quarter and said it repurchased approximately 9.5 million shares.

The quarter arrived a week after a leadership announcement. On Sept. 3, Adobe said Anil Chakravarthy, previously president of its Customer Experience Orchestration business and worldwide field operations, will become president and chief executive officer on Dec. 1, 2026, with Narayen becoming executive chair on the same date. That is the transition Narayen referred to in his earnings comment.

The market's first full session with the numbers came Friday. Invezz reported on Sept. 11 that Adobe shares opened lower that day, and noted that the stock was down more than 25 percent versus the start of the year. That piece also carries a Buy rating and a $250 price target from Gil Luria of D.A. Davidson; that is the analyst's view, not ours. Earnings Dispatch does not publish a view on the shares.

The practical test of Thursday's document comes with the fourth-quarter report, when the raised annual ranges either hold or do not. Until then, the fiscal 2026 figures above the quarter remain targets, and the only fiscal 2026 results Adobe has reported are the three quarters already on the books.