TLDR
- Adobe announced a $25 billion share repurchase program running through April 30, 2030
- The stock jumped as much as 3.5% in early Wednesday trading on the news
- ADBE has fallen over 60% since February 2024 on fears AI tools will disrupt its business
- Anthropic’s Claude Design launch last week added to pressure on the stock
- Mizuho reiterated an Outperform rating and $315 price target following Adobe Summit 2026 announcements
Adobe’s stock jumped as much as 3.5% in early Wednesday trading after the company announced a $25 billion share repurchase program, a move that signals management believes the market has gone too far in pricing in AI disruption risk.
The buyback authorization runs through April 30, 2030, and replaces a prior program of the same size. CFO Dan Durn called it “a direct expression of confidence in our robust cash flow and the long-term value we are delivering to investors.”
The stock has been battered. ADBE has dropped more than 60% from its 2021 record high, hitting its lowest level in over seven years earlier this month. The selloff has been driven largely by fears that AI tools will hollow out demand for Adobe’s creative software suite.
Those fears got louder last week when Anthropic unveiled Claude Design, a tool that lets users create designs, prototypes, and presentations directly through its chatbot. Adobe’s stock fell on the announcement.
Adobe responded quickly, releasing a set of AI-enabled customer service functions shortly after the Claude Design news broke. The company also announced this week at Adobe Summit 2026 in Las Vegas that it is expanding partnerships with AWS, Google Cloud, IBM, Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI.
Adobe’s market cap now sits at roughly $100 billion. The buyback plan, at $25 billion, represents about a quarter of that — a notable bet that the stock is undervalued.
Analysts at KeyBank noted there was still $3.9 billion remaining from the previous $25 billion program announced in March 2024. Combined with the new authorization, that leaves roughly $28.9 billion in total buyback capacity, or about 51% of their free cash flow estimates through fiscal 2030.
Adobe Pushes Back on AI Threat Narrative
At Summit 2026, Adobe unveiled CX Enterprise — an end-to-end agentic AI system combining agents, MCP endpoints, and a governance layer to deliver personalized customer experiences at scale. The platform processes over one trillion experiences annually for more than 20,000 brands.
The company also launched new brand visibility tools for AI-driven discovery and CX Enterprise Coworker, AI agents designed to automate customer experience workflows across its Experience Platform.
Mizuho reiterated its Outperform rating and $315 price target following the Summit announcements, saying Adobe is now actively monetizing its generative AI innovations and can deliver on its fiscal 2026 growth targets.
Goldman Sachs Flags a Concern
Not everyone is fully sold. Rich Privorotsky, head of European One Delta trading at Goldman Sachs, said the buyback sends a “strong signal” but called it “awkward to spread over a long duration that far out when the market is actively questioning the terminal value of the franchise.”
He added that the real question isn’t what Adobe reports for Q1, but what the company signals about future demand.
Adobe is also not alone in using buybacks as a confidence signal. Salesforce announced a program of the same size, and actually issued debt to fund it.
Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen announced in March he will resign after 18 years in the role, staying on until a successor is named.
Adobe is due to report its fiscal second-quarter results on June 11.
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