March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Adobe Systems Inc., the biggest maker of design software, said first-quarter profit climbed 53 percent and predicted earnings for the current period that beat analysts' estimates, sending the shares up 6.3 percent.

Net income rose to $219.4 million, or 38 cents a share, San Jose, California-based Adobe said today. Excluding costs such as stock-based compensation, profit was 48 cents a share, beating the 45-cent average estimate in a Bloomberg survey of analysts.

Adobe maintained its forecast for revenue growth of about 13 percent this year, easing concern that advertising and marketing companies are curbing software spending. Chief Executive Officer Shantanu Narayen is benefiting from European sales of Creative Suite 3, a package of programs for editing photos, designing Web sites and creating videos.

``This is a big relief for Adobe shareholders,'' said Jeff Gaggin, an analyst with Avian Securities Inc. in New York. He has a positive rating on the shares and said he doesn't own any. ``These guys are clearly performing well in this really tough environment.''

Adobe rose $2 to $33.88 in extended trading, after closing at $31.88 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have declined 25 percent this year.

Sales advanced 37 percent to $890.4 million in the period ended Feb. 29, beating the $876 million estimated by analysts. Last year, the company reported profit of $143.9 million, or 24 cents a share.

Second Quarter

For the second quarter, revenue will rise to as much as $885 million, Adobe said. Profit, excluding costs such as stock- based compensation, will be 45 cents to 47 cents a share. Analysts anticipate revenue of $873.4 million and profit of 44 cents.

``We continue to expect Creative Suite to have a strong tail,'' Narayen said today in an interview. ``We don't get enough credit for the diversified and global business we truly are.''

The forecast for 13 percent sales growth this year indicates revenue of $3.57 billion. Analysts had estimated $3.58 billion.

Sales at the creative software unit, which includes Creative Suite, jumped 57 percent to $543.5 million in the first quarter, accounting for 61 percent of revenue. This was the second full quarter that six editions of the product were available in all markets.

Geographic Sales

Revenue in the Americas gained 33 percent to $396.9 million, or 45 percent of sales. Revenue in Europe, the Middle East and Africa jumped 50 percent to $323.9 million, while sales in Asia advanced 25 percent to $169.6 million.

The company anticipates third-quarter revenue will be ``approximately the same'' as the previous three months, Chief Financial Officer Mark Garrett said on a conference call. Adobe will release new versions of its Creative Suite and Acrobat PDF programs this year, said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. in San Francisco.

Creative Suite includes programs from Adobe and Macromedia Inc., which Adobe acquired in 2005. With that purchase, Adobe gained Flash software used on 98 percent of the world's personal computers for viewing video and animation. Flash Lite, a version for handsets, is now on 500 million devices.

Missing from the list of Flash Lite supporters is Apple Inc., maker of the iPhone. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said this month that Flash runs too slowly to be useful on the iPhone and that Flash Lite isn't ``capable enough.''

``Anyone who wants to experience the Web in all its glory really needs Flash support,'' Narayen told analysts today. ``We are committed to bringing the Flash experience to the iPhone and we will work with Apple.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Rochelle Garner in San Francisco at rgarner4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 18, 2008 19:50 EDT