I find Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) extremely boring these days. Sure, the Macromedia acquisition was exciting, and there are still potential threats from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), as Mr. Softy pushes its own platforms to rival Adobe's Flash and PDF formats in its new Vista operating system. However, given Vista's delays and the substantial ecosystem that Adobe/Macromedia has built around its digital formats, the House of Gates faces an uphill struggle to gain competitive traction. I'd wager that its ongoing battle for online advertising supremacy with a little company called Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) might also be wee bit distracting.
So I can hardly help but yawn when I look over Adobe's latest earnings results. Revenue was up 24% to $602 million. That's about the midpoint of the company's previous guidance, accelerating a bit from last quarter's 22% growth (as Rich Smith had hoped in Tuesday's Foolish Forecast). Net income was only $94.4 million, down considerably from $144.9 million year over year. However, keep in mind that operating cash flow was rock solid at $184.5 million, slightly higher than last year's $173 million. Since about $0.30 of every dollar of revenue shows up in operating cash flow, this is one heartbreakingly beautiful business from an investor standpoint.
CEO Bruce Chizen is not resting on his laurels, stating that he wants Adobe's software to be the "engagement platform" for anything with an LCD display, from computers to mobile phones to high-tech refrigerators. With its software on 500 million PCs and Flash on 700 million PCs, mobile phones, and other devices, the company seems to be off to a good start.
Indeed, Adobe has gone to great pains to include a web standard called AJAX into its applications, giving rise to numerous AJAX/Flash apps around the Web -- and turning a potential competitor into a brilliant complementary product. Adobe's collaboration with Salesforce.com (NASDAQ:CRM) in the software-as-services space is no less fascinating, building on the company's existing tools by letting users create Acrobat-compatible PDF files online.
Management has substantial opportunities in front of it, both in Web applications like Flash and secure PDF technology for mobile phones. Furthermore, as part of its Macromedia acquisition, Adobe has gained a large enterprise sales force to help sell document solutions to the enterprise market; the company had previously focused more on retail sales to individual customers.
The only real problem at Adobe is its valuation. At a rich P/E of 35, and an enterprise value-to-free cash flow ratio of 37, it's just too expensive for my value-investor blood. Perhaps Mr. Market will give us a blue-light special one day soon.
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Fool contributor Stephen Ellis doesn't hold shares in any companies mentioned. You can see his holdings for yourself . The Motley Fool has an engaging disclosure policy .
