Adobe Benefiting from Mega Trends

Credit Suisse’s Jason Maynard picked up coverage of Adobe Systems (ADBE) yesterday with an Outperform rating and a $47 price target. “We believe Adobe is one of the best-positioned large-cap software companies, given its dominant positioning in the digital media business, along with a number of smaller, but rapidly growing plays in the enterprise, mobile, and Web 2.0 markets,” he wrote in a research note.

Maynard says Adobe benefits from several mega trends, including massive broadband penetration and growth, improvements in PC price and performance, and the propagation of consumer electronic devices. He writes:

All of these trends bring a need for software tools that enable the creation and distribution of digital media.We like Adobe’s potential for multi-year growth because it can bring its proven expertise in traditional print and the acquired Web capabilities of Macromedia into an integrated set of products across all forms of media.. The company’s coming launch of Creative Suite version 3 “should be able to drive both FY07 revenue andEPS higher as its large installed base of customer upgrades to the new product.

In pre-market trading yesterday morning, Adobe shares were up 32 cents at $38.76.

ADBE 1-yr chart