WebProNews

A good nine out of ten recent stock-related stories have been negative; words like "decline," "sink," and "plummet" are getting used a lot.  Adobe's bucking the trend, though, with a late and quite positive fourth-quarter financial report.

How does "record revenue of $911.2 million" sound?  Or "34 percent year-over-year growth"?  Investors certainly seemed to enjoy those phrases, as Adobe's stock has climbed as high as $43.97 today (it's now resting at $42.20, compared to a close yesterday of about $40.90).

The performance also beat analysts' expectations, and what's more, Adobe seems ready to do well again in the future.  Share repurchase programs, product launches - there's no reason to believe Adobe won't achieve at least the 13 percent growth in annual revenue it's announced as a target for 2008.

Assuming, of course, that the market doesn't shift, the economy doesn't crash, and California doesn't break off from the rest of the U.S.  "Adobe is not recession-proof, but we do think the company is demonstrating a certain level of resilience to any current slowdown and the stock is partly defensive in the current environment given the product cycle," said Jefferies & Co. analyst Ross MacMillan, according to the AP.

Here's hoping that Adobe's resilience will last and that the slowdown, in any case, won't.