Quick Read
Tobias Carlisle calls Adobe compelling at a forward P/E of 8 and PEG of 0.53, with shares down 44% year to date.
Carlisle pairs Booking Holdings with Adobe as established platforms offering discounted prices to account for generative AI disruption risk.
Adobe’s AI-first ARR tripled to $500 million while the analyst consensus price target of $282 implies roughly 45% upside.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Adobe didn’t make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Value investor Tobias Carlisle made a contrarian case for Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) on a recent episode of The Investor’s Podcast, telling co-hosts Stig Brodersen and Hari Ramachandra that “I think the valuation’s very compelling” and pointing to a “big discount” and “a lot of buybacks” at the creative software giant.
Carlisle’s pitch lands at a time when the stock has clearly fallen out of favor. Adobe shares closed at $195.16 on Thursday, June 18, 2026, down 44.24% year-to-date and 48.38% over the past year. The market cap now sits near $77.58 billion, with the stock trading at a forward P/E of 8 and a PEG ratio of just 0.53.
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The AI Question at the Heart of the Thesis
Carlisle’s argument hinges on an open question: whether generative AI ultimately disrupts Adobe’s core editing tools or gives the company a tailwind. “Maybe that’s where Adobe really shines, that you can do all of the idea creation and really simple stuff in ChatGPT or whatever LLM you use,” he said, while complex editing remains Adobe’s domain. He grouped Adobe alongside Booking Holdings (NASDAQ:BKNG) as both being established software platforms facing existential questions from generative AI.
He framed the discount that both stocks are seeing as compensation for that uncertainty: “If it is sort of temporary or they can adapt or be beneficiaries, then you’re getting a good price. You’re getting a good handicap price to take it on here.”
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Adobe didn’t make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Adobe’s Recent Results
In Q2 FY2026, the company posted record revenue of $6.62 billion, up 13% year over year, with non-GAAP diluted EPS of $5.96. AI-first ARR tripled year over year, exceeding $500 million, and total Adobe ARR reached $27.10 billion. Management raised full-year guidance to $26.50 billion to $26.60 billion in revenue and non-GAAP EPS of $24.35 to $24.45.
