New York, Jan 13, 2026, 18:37 EST — After-hours
- Adobe shares dropped roughly 5% in after-hours trading, continuing the decline seen on Tuesday.
- Oppenheimer downgraded its rating, citing AI-related headwinds weighing on software pricing.
- Apple rolled out a new Creator Studio bundle, priced below Adobe’s top subscription.
Adobe shares dropped 5.4% to $309.93 in after-hours trading Tuesday, having hit a low of $307.94 earlier in the session.
The slide came after Oppenheimer downgraded Adobe, citing generative AI’s growing impact on the company’s reliable subscription model. Analyst Brian Schwartz cut Adobe to “Perform” from “Outperform” and removed the price target altogether. In his note, he said Gen AI “is increasing the velocity of content creation while lowering price and subscriber growth.” 1
Competition is heating up at the low end of creative tools—and it’s not just startups shaking things up. Apple unveiled “Apple Creator Studio” on Tuesday, a $12.99-per-month bundle hitting the App Store on Jan. 28. It combines Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Pixelmator Pro, and more. Eddy Cue, an Apple exec, called it “a more flexible and accessible way to get started.” The Verge pointed out the price undercuts Adobe’s $69.99-a-month Creative Cloud Pro plan by a wide margin. 2
Oppenheimer’s note wasn’t entirely negative. It highlighted the stock as “cheap” and presenting “good medium-term opportunities,” though it warned the 2026 software applications outlook looks “challenging,” pointing to multiple years of underperformance against broader equity benchmarks. 3
Tuesday’s action unfolded amid a quiet session for U.S. stocks, as investors digested big bank earnings and new inflation figures. Software stocks, meanwhile, continued to drag. 4
Bloomberg reports that analyst sentiment on Adobe has sunk to its lowest point since 2013. Oppenheimer’s recent downgrade highlights fears that growth may slow as competitors—including OpenAI—simplify image and video creation without relying on traditional design software. 5
Still, the bears need to prove the impact hits the numbers quickly. Apple’s Creator Studio is locked into Apple’s ecosystem, whereas Adobe’s products span multiple platforms and serve a vast enterprise and professional audience that rarely jumps ship overnight.
Traders will be watching the next session closely to see if more brokers slash forecasts, and whether this weakness spills over to other application-software stocks that rely on seat licenses—that per-user subscription model that AI might nudge toward usage-based pricing.
Adobe’s next key event is its Q1 fiscal 2026 earnings call on March 12. Investors will be watching closely for shifts in how management discusses AI-driven demand, pricing, and competitive dynamics. 6
