INTU vs ADBE Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
Intuit and Adobe are both large, profitable software platform companies but serve completely different markets — Intuit owns SMB financial management and consumer tax, Adobe owns creative software and digital experience. Both are racing to embed AI into their platforms to drive ARPU growth and defend against disruption. They are not competitors but represent different software market exposures for investors.
INTU vs ADBE is a comparison of financial management software dominance (Intuit) versus creative and digital experience software dominance (Adobe) — both are profitable platform companies with AI integration as the next growth catalyst, but serving very different user bases and competitive environments.
ADBE holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. ADBE leads on both 1-year return (-32.26%) and forward P/E quality (9.12x vs 12.96x for INTU), a relatively favorable combination of momentum and valuation. On fundamentals, INTU is growing revenue faster (13.70%), while ADBE maintains the higher operating margin (35.33%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for INTU (+18.26%) than for ADBE (+10.63%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- prefer SMB financial management and consumer tax software platforms with durable multi-decade market positions
- value higher operating margins (30%+) from Intuit's accounting and tax franchise dominance
- want exposure to SMB fintech AI adoption through Intuit Assist and live expert services at scale
- are comfortable with IRS Direct File risk and SMB macroeconomic sensitivity
- prefer the dominant creative software platform with Firefly generative AI as the most commercially mature enterprise AI creative tool
- value Creative Cloud's near-monopoly in professional design and video with strong switching costs from deep creative workflow integration
- want Experience Cloud exposure to enterprise digital marketing and personalization spending
- are comfortable with generative AI competitive disruption risk from open-source and consumer AI image/video tools
| Metric | INTU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 49.2 | 41.2 |
| AI ranki | #582 | #1074 |
| Latest closei | $303.19 | $248.92 |
| 1M returni | -16.35% | -8.64% |
| 6M returni | -33.40% | +1.19% |
| 1Y returni | -55.08% | -32.26% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | INTU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $4.49K (-55.1%) started 2025-09-18 | $6.77K (-32.3%) started 2025-09-18 |
| 5Y ago | $5.74K (-42.6%) started 2021-09-20 | $3.88K (-61.2%) started 2021-09-20 |
| 10Y ago | $31.85K (+218.5%) started 2016-09-19 | $24.97K (+149.7%) started 2016-09-19 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | INTU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $97.94B | $100.26B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 21.14 | 14.08 |
| Forward P/Ei | 12.96 | 9.12 |
| Price/Salesi | 11.84 | 8.06 |
| EV/Revenuei | 4.59 | 3.98 |
| Analyst targeti | $423.46 | $279.05 |
| Target upsidei | +18.26% | +10.63% |
| Metric | INTU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 13.70% | 12.70% |
| Earnings growthi | -0.80% | 7.90% |
| EPS growthi | -0.80% | +7.90% |
| FCF margini | +30.02% | +36.58% |
| Operating margini | 17.64% | 35.33% |
| Profit margini | 21.29% | 28.69% |
| ROIC proxyi | 23.60% | 62.95% |
| Return on equityi | 23.60% | 62.95% |
| Dividend yieldi | 1.54% | N/A |
| Payout ratioi | 29.16% | 0.00% |
| Dividend growth streaki | No increase yet | No increase yet |
| Betai | 0.96 | 1.42 |
| Debt/equityi | 43.89 | 61.44 |
| Current ratioi | 1.51 | 0.75 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.78 | 0.63 |
Over the past year, INTU and ADBE have moved strongly in the same direction (correlation of 0.71), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | INTU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -55.08% | -32.26% |
| CAGRi | -55.10% | -32.28% | |
| Volatilityi | 49.13% | 40.55% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -1.47 | -0.87 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -1.84 | -1.18 | |
| Max drawdowni | 63.67% | 47.37% | |
| Current drawdowni | 56.82% | 32.26% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 33.81% | 23.64% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 39.96% | 26.90% | |
| Max daily dropi | 20.02% | 7.58% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 24.51% | 18.86% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -43.98% | -61.18% |
| CAGRi | -10.95% | -17.26% | |
| Volatilityi | 38.92% | 37.98% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.22 | -0.43 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.30 | -0.56 | |
| Max drawdowni | 68.41% | 71.90% | |
| Current drawdowni | 62.45% | 63.84% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 25.21% | 38.06% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 30.88% | 41.64% | |
| Max daily dropi | 20.02% | 16.79% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 24.51% | 25.31% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +197.39% | +149.72% |
| CAGRi | +11.52% | +9.59% | |
| Volatilityi | 34.69% | 35.17% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.36 | 0.31 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.51 | 0.43 | |
| Max drawdowni | 68.41% | 71.90% | |
| Current drawdowni | 62.45% | 63.84% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 14.72% | 21.52% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 22.29% | 29.86% | |
| Max daily dropi | 20.02% | 16.79% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 24.51% | 25.31% |
| Category | INTU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Intuit Inc. | Adobe Inc. |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Software - Application | Software - Application |
| Core business | Intuit serves SMBs and consumers with QuickBooks (accounting, payments, payroll), TurboTax (consumer tax filing), Credit Karma (financial services marketplace), and Mailchimp (SMB marketing automation). AI is embedded across the platform through Intuit Assist and live expert services that combine AI with human professionals. Intuit's scale ($16B+ revenue) and profitability (30%+ operating margins) reflect decades of dominant market positions in SMB accounting and consumer tax. | Adobe is the global leader in creative software (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro), document management (Acrobat, PDF), and digital experience (Adobe Experience Cloud for marketing analytics and personalization). Generative AI through Adobe Firefly is being integrated into Creative Cloud and Express for AI-powered content creation. Adobe's subscription model (Creative Cloud, Document Cloud, Experience Cloud) generates $21B+ in annual revenue at approximately 35%+ operating margins. |
| Investor focus | Investors track QuickBooks Online subscriber growth and ARPC, TurboTax revenue and live-assisted mix, Credit Karma monetization, Mailchimp growth, and AI Assist adoption across all platforms. | Investors focus on Creative Cloud subscription ARPU growth, Firefly generative AI monetization (Generative Credits, premium paid AI features), Experience Cloud growth from enterprise digital experience spending, and operating margin sustainability as AI R&D investment grows. |
- Dominant SMB accounting franchise (QuickBooks) with decades of customer lock-in at 30%+ operating margins
- TurboTax near-monopoly in consumer tax with growing live-assisted expert upsell at significantly higher ARPC
- Multi-product ecosystem creates compounding switching costs across accounting, tax, payroll, and marketing
- Creative Cloud dominates professional creative tools with near-monopoly in design, video, and photography workflows
- Firefly generative AI provides enterprise-safe content generation (trained on licensed content, avoiding copyright litigation) differentiated from open-source AI alternatives
- Experience Cloud serves enterprises with personalization and analytics, diversifying beyond creative into MarTech
- IRS Direct File free filing program is an ongoing risk to TurboTax's consumer tax franchise
- SMB market sensitivity to economic downturns affects QuickBooks subscriber growth
- Credit Karma depends on lending product availability and consumer credit health
- Generative AI tools like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and OpenAI's image/video models threaten to commoditize some Adobe creative functions
- Figma competitive pressure in collaborative design; Canva competing in the SMB creative market
- Firefly monetization has been slower than investors expected — AI features must convert to incremental ARPU rather than simply defending existing subscribers
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