Adobe Inc. said revenue in its digital experience segment, which contains its Magento Commerce ecommerce software, increased 5% year over year to $826 million for the fiscal second quarter ended May 29.

Sales surged 18% in its digital media segment to $2.27 billion, however, signaling strong demand for its Photoshop and productivity tools while customers work from home, the company said Thursday.

The software maker told investors in March that the coronavirus outbreak had created business uncertainty and reduced corporate marketing budgets, leading to weaker demand for its products. Thursday’s results showed the damage to the business wasn’t as bad as feared, with quarterly sales increasing 14% to $3.13 billion. Analysts projected $3.16 billion.

Growing with cloud strategy

Santanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe

Shantanu Narayen, president, chairman and CEO, has spurred Adobe’s revenue and market value to record heights since he transitioned the company to cloud-based software in 2012. Before the coronavirus pandemic and recession, Adobe’s torrid pace of growth was expected to slow, even as the company unveils a steady stream of new products to modernize clients’ technology systems and freshen mobile apps for consumers, designers and social media influencers. While Adobe has sought to diversify from the creative products that became household names with expensive bets on enterprise software, Photoshop and its brethren remains the company’s cash cow.

“We have successfully navigated several crises and have always used them as a catalyst to make strategic and structural change to emerge stronger,” Narayen said in a conference call after the results. “Our employees, broad and diverse portfolio of products, strong balance sheet and rigorous operating cadence put us in a rarified atmosphere among companies of our size and scale.”

Shares rose about 3% in extended trading after closing at $387.67 in New York. The stock has climbed about 18% this year.

Profit, after some expenses, was $2.45 a share in the period ended May 29, beating analysts’ expectations of $2.34. Adobe said it will generate a profit of $2.40 a share in the current period, missing estimates by 5 cents.

Investing in web content tools and next-generation apps

Revenue from digital media is projected to increase 16% year-over-year in the current period. Adobe said the unit’s annual recurring revenue will show a net increase of $340 million in the current period, pointing to continued growth for the business.

Annualized recurring revenue for the digital media division was $9.17 billion at the end of the fiscal second quarter, the San Jose, California-based company said Thursday in a statement. Analysts, on average, estimated $9.03 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Adobe projected revenue of $3.15 billion in the current period ending in August, missing analysts’ average estimate of $3.27 billion, because of weak demand for the company’s Advertising Cloud product. The company withdrew its annual forecast announced in December.

Adobe’s executives said that by stopping the product, which helped clients conduct advertising transactions, the company can instead invest in future growth areas, such as making web browsers a better platform for creating content, artificial intelligence and next-generation apps. Adobe has seen record web traffic for its document and creative products, but demand from small and mid-sized businesses has waned during the pandemic.