Adobe is getting hit on CFO departure. Three analysts are downgrading the stock
Adobe’s fiscal second-quarter results beat expectations, and full-year guidance came in better-than-expected. But C-suite changes and three downgrades are hitting the stock in premarket trading Friday. Stifel downgraded the stock to hold from buy, and lowered its price target to $200. That indicates an 8.5% loss from Thursday’s close. Analyst J. Parker Lane said in a Thursday note that despite the beat, Adobe’s lower outlook for annual recurring revenue in a push more into its Freemium strategy, where a high-quality free product is delivered to customers, is weighing on the stock. He added that the departure of CFO Dan Durn , announced Thursday, combined with CEO Shantanu Narayen set to step down this year adds more uncertainty to the company’s future. “We are moving to the sidelines as the company navigates the Freemium strategy shift and CEO/CFO transitions,” Lane wrote. Wolfe Research lowered its rating on Adobe to peer perform from outperform. Analyst Alex Zukin called the earnings report “thesis changing,” believing that the executive changes the company is undergoing along with growth deceleration is set to limit the stock’s gains. Wolfe doesn’t provide price targets for peer perform-rated stocks. Evercore ISI also downgraded the stock to hold from buy. Its new price target of $225 represents just under a 3% gain from Thursday’s close. Analyst Kirk Materne also said the annual recurring revenue outlook was disappointing. “FY26 total ARR guidance was kept at 10.2%, implying total organic net new ARR will decline by 55-60% in 2H26,” Materne wrote in a Friday note. “The combination of pushed-out monetization in favor of driving stronger near-term engagement and the ongoing CEO/CFO search likely keeps ADBE shares in ‘show me’ mode.” ADBE 1Y mountain Adobe 1-year. Shares of Adobe have been hammered in the past 12 months, down 47%, and they’ve tumbled more than 37% in 2026 alone on fears that artificial intelligence may disrupt software companies’ business models. In premarket trading on Friday, those losses continued, with the stock down more than 6%.
