Adobe has $24.55 billion remaining on a $25 billion share repurchase authorization approved in April, an amount equal to roughly 26 percent of the company’s market value at current prices. The stock has fallen about 31 percent this year, from around $350 at the end of 2025 to near $240, and the board’s authorization runs through April 2030.

The authorization and the math

With 389.2 million shares outstanding in mid-September, Adobe’s market capitalization sits near $93 billion. The unspent authorization could repurchase approximately 102 million shares at today’s price, retiring a little more than a quarter of the float. Management has three and a half years to deploy the capital and no obligation to spend it all, though the pace so far suggests intent.

Cash flow funds the pace

In the first three quarters of the fiscal year, Adobe repurchased 26.1 million shares for $6.82 billion, averaging about $2.3 billion per quarter. Operating cash flow over the same period reached $7.65 billion, up roughly 11 percent year over year, and buybacks consumed close to 90 percent of it. The balance sheet held $5.64 billion in cash and short-term investments against about $6.4 billion in debt at quarter-end. At the recent run rate, the remaining authorization would be exhausted sometime in 2029; spread evenly through the April 2030 deadline, it implies about $7 billion per year.

Share count mechanics

Diluted shares outstanding fell to around 395 million in the fiscal third quarter from 402 million in the second quarter and 424 million a year earlier. The fourth-quarter target assumes roughly 389 million shares, a decline of about 2 percent per quarter. Not every repurchased share stays retired, employee stock awards added back enough to offset roughly 4 million of the 26.1 million shares bought in the nine-month period, leaving a net reduction of about 22 million.

Valuation context

Adjusted net income rose 8 percent year over year to $2.42 billion in the third quarter, while adjusted earnings per share climbed 15 percent to $6.13. GAAP net income grew 3 percent, with GAAP earnings per share up 11 percent to $4.62. The shrinking share count accounted for roughly half the adjusted per-share gain. At the current price, Adobe trades around 13 times GAAP earnings and about 10 times the midpoint of management’s fiscal 2026 adjusted earnings target of $24.45 to $24.50. At the 52-week high of $363.70, that same target implied nearly 15 times adjusted earnings.