The king of PDF files may be one of the most dependable tech stocks to own thanks to its wide range of popular products. Adobe is only a few months away from launching the fifth edition of its Creative Suite (CS5), a collection of media design and development software such as Photoshop and Flash.
Though the stock is trading at 19 times calendar 2010 estimates, Ticonderoga Securities analyst Jay Vleeschhouwer says it's a fair value for a market leading software firm. And for the next few years, analysts expect Adobe's earnings to grow 15% on average.
Most agree the release of CS5 will no doubt top CS4's limited success since it was unveiled at the start of the recession, when advertising budgets were crunched. Some say the launch could come close to that of CS3, which is considered to be most successful product introduction in Adobe's 27-year history.
There are also several incentives driving consumers to upgrade to CS5, including Web analytics tools that the company can integrate into the software package after it acquired Omniture for $1.8 billion last year. And despite Apple's refusal to make its mobile devices compatible with Flash, Flash is omnipresent on the Web and will likely continue to be a Web video leader as other mobile operating systems like Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows Mobile enable it.
--Hibah Yousuf
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