Mark Garrett
Analyst · Walter Pritchard from Citi
Our earnings report today covers both Q4 and fiscal year 2014 results. In FY '14, Adobe achieved annual revenue of $4,147,000,000. GAAP EPS was $0.50 and non-GAAP EPS was $1.29. All of these results were well ahead of the annual targets we provided entering the year. These numbers are a result of strong execution against our strategy, and from some noteworthy achievements during the year.
In FY '14, we reported Digital Media segment revenue of $2.6 billion, ahead of our target of $2.5 billion that we communicated last December. More importantly, we built Digital Media ARR to a total of $1.95 billion exiting the year, which was nearly $100 million higher than the annual target we provided last year. Helping to drive this was 3.45 million Creative Cloud subscriptions exiting the year, more than 400,000 higher than the target we provided a year ago.
In Digital Marketing, we drove record Adobe Marketing Cloud bookings well above our target of 30% growth for the year. As we outlined in September, reported revenue for Adobe Marketing Cloud was impacted by the faster-than-anticipated transition of Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe Campaign to a subscription-based revenue model this year. Were it not for the quicker shift to ratable revenue, Adobe Marketing Cloud revenue would have grown 21%, above our original target of 20% annual revenue growth in the year.
Other financial highlights during the year include growing deferred revenue to a record $1.16 billion and increasing our unbilled backlog to approximately $1.74 billion exiting the year; together, this represents nearly $3 billion of contracted revenue that will be recognized over time; and returning nearly $700 million in cash to stockholders through our stock repurchase program.
In the fourth quarter of FY '14, Adobe achieved revenue of $1,073,000,000, at the high end of our targeted range. GAAP diluted earnings per share in Q4 were $0.14, and non-GAAP diluted earnings per share were $0.36.
Highlights in our fourth quarter include driving strong adoption of Creative Cloud across all offerings: individual, team and enterprise; growing Adobe Marketing Cloud bookings well ahead of our target; managing expenses to deliver upside on earnings per share; achieving $400 million in operating cash flow; and exiting Q4 with 66% recurring revenue. In Q4 of last year, the percentage was 44% and in Q4 of fiscal 2012 it was 27%.
In Digital Media, we achieved revenue of $649 million. This segment has 2 major components of revenue: our Creative family of products and our Document Services products.
In our Creative business, adoption of Creative Cloud accelerated significantly quarter-over-quarter. We exited Q4 with 3,454,000 Creative Cloud subscriptions. Adoption across all Creative Cloud offerings grew quarter-on-quarter. Retention of Creative Cloud subscriptions, including renewals after promotional pricing expiration, continues to track ahead of our initial projections.
Average revenue per user, or ARPU, within each of our Creative Cloud offerings maintained steady levels consistent with results over the past year. Blended ARPU across all Creative Cloud offerings declined slightly as a result of the significant increase in new Single App subscriptions.
It is important to note that the unit mix between Creative Suites and individual point products in our perpetual offering was approximately 50-50. We are excited that adoption of Single Apps and the Creative Cloud Photography plan is expanding our market opportunity. During this growth phase, we fully anticipate the percentage of Single App subscriptions will continue to grow. This strategy is driving higher ARR and revenue, and creates the opportunity to drive even higher revenue through ARPU-enhancing services.
Adoption of Creative Cloud for teams accelerated in Q4, with momentum in both the channel as well as on Adobe.com. Our success with individual and team subscriptions, and enterprise term license agreements, or ETLAs, helped to drive Creative ARR to a total of $1.68 billion exiting Q4 at constant currency from December of 2013, an increase of $272 million quarter-over-quarter.
In Document Services, we achieved revenue of $197 million in Q4. Revenue declined slightly quarter-over-quarter, offset by strong growth in ARR. Strong adoption of Acrobat ETLAs, subscriptions, and cloud services including EchoSign helped to grow Document Services ARR to $271 million exiting Q4 at constant currency rates, a $54 million sequential increase over Q3.
In our Digital Marketing segment, there are 2 components. The first is revenue from our Adobe Marketing Cloud offering, and our momentum as the leader in this market continued. We achieved revenue of $330 million in Q4. More importantly, we drove record bookings that put us ahead of our goal of 30% bookings growth for the year.
Our Adobe Marketing Cloud success is being driven by an increase in the size of transactions, number of solutions per customer, international expansion and growth in partner-driven business. Adobe Analytics, Experience Manager, Campaign, Target and Media Optimizer all had strong bookings which sets us up nicely for FY '15.
The mix of Adobe Experience Manager and Campaign that was ratable versus perpetual revenue grew to approximately 75% for the year. As you recall, we explained in September, our target for that mix entering the year was approximately 60%. Were it not for this incremental shift of approximately $60 million of revenue to ratable with these 2 solutions, we would have achieved 21% Marketing Cloud revenue growth for the year. The growth rate would have been greater than 25% for the year if no shift at all had occurred, and we are reiterating our 25% Marketing Cloud revenue CAGR.
The second component of our Digital Marketing segment is revenue from the LiveCycle and Connect businesses, which contributed $44 million in Q4 revenue, consistent with our expectations.
Print and Publishing segment revenue was $50 million in Q4.
Geographically, we experienced stable demand across our major geographies, and we saw increased adoption of Creative Cloud subscriptions in Japan. Asia as a percent of total revenue remains lower given Creative Cloud and Marketing Cloud adoption trails other geographies.
From a quarter-over-quarter currency perspective, FX decreased revenue by $11.7 million. We had $12.2 million in hedge gains in Q4 FY '14 versus $1.1 million in hedge gains in Q3 FY '14, thus the net sequential currency decrease to revenue considering hedging gains was $0.6 million.
From a year-over-year currency perspective, FX decreased revenue by $8.8 million. We had $12.2 million in hedge gains in Q4 FY '14 versus $3.1 million in hedge gains in Q4 FY '13, thus the net year-over-year currency increase to revenue considering hedging gains was $0.3 million.
In Q4, Adobe's effective tax rate was 21% on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. The GAAP rate was lower than targeted primarily due to stronger-than-forecasted profits outside the U.S.
Employees at the end of Q4 totaled 12,499 versus 12,368 at the end of last quarter. Our trade DSO was 50 days, which compares to 52 days in the year-ago quarter and 48 days last quarter.
Cash flow from operations was $400 million in the quarter. Our ending cash and short-term investment position was $3.74 billion compared to $3.52 billion at the end of Q3.
In Q4 FY '14, we repurchased approximately 1.8 million shares at a total cost of $127 million. For the year, we repurchased 10.9 million shares at a total cost of $689 million.
Now I would like to go over the acquisition announcement we made today, as well as provide our financial outlook.
Today, we announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Fotolia in an all-cash transaction of $800 million. We expect it to close in the second half of Q1 and add approximately $75 million in FY '15 revenue, net of purchase accounting adjustments. We believe this transaction will be neutral to non-GAAP earnings in FY '15 and accretive in FY '16. At this time, we cannot estimate the impact to earnings on a GAAP basis.
Fotolia is a U.S.-based company, so we're primarily using onshore cash for the transaction. The bulk of their operations and business are in Europe, and we intend to invest in the business during the year to drive broader global adoption of their services, particularly in the U.S. We see significant synergies over time with Fotolia and our Creative Cloud offering, in what is a large and fast-growing market.
Turning to our financial outlook. The targets we are providing today reflect current currency rates and exclude any benefit or impact from the announced acquisition of Fotolia.
We are happy to report we are either on track or are ahead of key long-term goals we set a year ago.
Consistent with our target of approximately 20% compound annual revenue growth between FY '14 and FY '16, we are targeting total revenue of approximately $4.85 billion in FY '15. We expect GAAP earnings per share of $1.20 and non-GAAP earnings per share of $2.05, which is ahead of the target we provided a year ago.
As we've mentioned before, we will adjust ARR on an annual basis to reflect any material FX changes. Our FY '14 exiting Digital Media ARR of $1.947 billion was based on December 2013 FX rates. We've revalued that ARR amount based on December 2014 FX rates, and this has led to an updated ARR of $1.875 billion, which is approximately $72 million lower entering FY '15.
In Digital Media, we remain on track to drive a revenue CAGR of 20% between FY '14 and FY '16, supported by strong growth in ARR and the subscription adoption we've driven. In FY '15, we expect to grow ARR by greater than 50% from $1.875 billion to approximately $2.9 billion by year end. We expect to grow total subscriptions by approximately 70% year-over-year and exit the year with approximately 5.9 million subscriptions. We also expect continued ETLA adoption during the year.
In Digital Marketing, we have strong momentum with Adobe Marketing Cloud bookings. We expect to continue to drive annual bookings growth of 30%, with annual reported revenue growth of approximately 25% in FY '15. Both are consistent with our long-term targets.
During FY '15, we anticipate revenue and earnings will grow sequentially every quarter during the year.
Given strong adoption in Q4 and normal seasonality in Q1, we expect net new Creative Cloud subscriptions will decline in Q1 when compared to the 644,000 we added in Q4, and then grow sequentially in the second, third and fourth quarters. We expect Digital Media ARR to follow the same trend.
In Digital Media, we expect creative revenue to grow significantly year-over-year. We are targeting Document Services revenue to grow slightly year-over-year. We also expect annual revenue for LiveCycle and Connect, and for Print and Publishing, to decline slightly year-over-year.
Quarterly Adobe Marketing Cloud bookings and reported revenue should also follow normal seasonality during the year.
In Q1 of FY '15, we are targeting a revenue range of $1,050,000,000 to $1,100,000,000. Again, this excludes the expected benefit of adding Fotolia during the quarter.
We expect Digital Media segment revenue to grow sequentially in Q1. Within Digital Media, we expect Creative revenue to grow sequentially, with Document Services revenue declining slightly.
In Digital Marketing, we are targeting Q1 Adobe Marketing Cloud revenue to decline on a sequential basis and grow on a year-over-year basis.
We expect combined revenue with LiveCycle and Connect to decline sequentially. We also expect Print and Publishing segment revenue to decline.
We are targeting our Q1 share count to be 508 million to 510 million shares. We are targeting net nonoperating expense to be between $12 million and $14 million on both a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. We are targeting a Q1 tax rate of 25% to 27% on a GAAP and 21% on a non-GAAP basis. These targets yield a Q1 GAAP earnings per share range of $0.14 to $0.20 per share, and a Q1 non-GAAP earnings per share range of $0.34 to $0.40.
In summary, 2014 was a great year. With multiple growth opportunities and category-leading products, we are poised to see strong revenue and earnings growth in the coming years.
Mike?