Summit 2016: Can High-Rated Adobe Systems Profit From Platforms?
High-rated Adobe Systems ( ADBE ) stock edged up Thursday but closed down slightly for the week of its Adobe Summit 2016 digital marketing conference. That’s a week after shares advanced almost 9% on the strength of Adobe’s first-quarter earnings report and outlook. The Adobe Summit in Las Vegas drew more than 10,000 people — the company’s largest live event to date. The theme centered around how brands are increasingly interacting with consumers in a wave of “digital experiences” online that leverage social networking. Actor George Clooney spoke at the Adobe Summit on Wednesday, but most presenters were from the tech and business worlds. Executives from major brands were among the featured speakers, from McDonald’s ( MCD ) and Mattel ( MAT ) to General Motors ( GM ) and General Electric ( GE ) to Comcast ( CMCSA ) and Charles Schwab ( SCHW ). That's right. It's George at #AdobeSummit talking experience and creativity. Watch live now: https://t.co/NTBQXucWEM pic.twitter.com/Q0HoYKOw3f — Adobe (@Adobe) March 23, 2016 “Adobe’s momentum in digital marketing was demonstrated in record attendance, including by CEOs, at its marketing summit,” Pacific Crest analyst Brendan Barnicle wrote in a research note as the conference kicked off Tuesday. “New products and partnerships increase its strategic value both to customers and the industry, and should drive continued growth and market-share gains.” Adobe Summit Sees World Gone Digital, From ‘Deadpool’ To Sea Of Data https://t.co/wT0S73h5it pic.twitter.com/Qz56otNOGn — Investors.com (@IBDinvestors) March 22, 2016 Adobe makes the Creative Cloud suite of content tools, such as Photoshop and Premiere Pro video editing software, along with the Adobe Marketing Cloud array of tools to track online content popularity and inform advertising decisions. This week, the company announced an audience measurement partnership with comScore ( SCOR ), among initiatives aimed at improving measurement of online video viewing and other forms of content consumption across platforms. Adobe Systems Analyst Briefing FBR & Co. analyst Samad Samana wrote Wednesday about an analyst briefing held in conjunction with the conference that “focused almost entirely on Adobe’s technology and the platform pivot.” In recent years, Adobe has moved headlong to host its products in the Internet cloud, using the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, with platforms that handle content’s entire life cycle from creation through tracking consumer interaction with it. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen summed up a broad Adobe goal: being able to “make, monetize and measure” the digital experiences that people have. “Management highlighted that it is investing around the ‘experience business’ wave of disruption and innovating at the platform level, both of which will be important in driving long-term growth for the digital marketing business,” Samana wrote. “While it is in the early stages, we see the platform play as strategically smart, as it should enhance the value proposition for Adobe’s entire product suite, making it stickier with customers.” Adobe, which is on the IBD Big Cap 20 stock list, closed up 0.4% Thursday at 92.52, down 1% for the week. The stock market is closed on Good Friday, March 25. Adobe gets a high IBD Composite Rating of 96 out of a possible 99. Adobe stock is a few percentage points under a potential buy point, trading above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages. RELATED: Adobe Summit Sees World Gone Digital, From ‘Deadpool’ To Sea Of Data Image provided by Shutterstock .