MW Another former bull throws in the towel on Adobe's stock. Here's the software stock he now favors.
By Hannah Pedone
Adobe has been losing bullish analysts fast, as the percentage has flipped to 44% of those surveyed by FactSet from 56% two months ago
Mizuho analyst Gregg Moskowitz downgraded shares of Adobe to neutral from outperform and upgraded shares of CrowdStrike to outperform from neutral on Monday.
Concerns have been brewing about the ability of design-software companies to make money off artificial intelligence in the same way that other software companies can. That concern is now being played out through Adobe, as another analyst downgraded the stock while at the same time upgrading shares of a cybersecurity player.
In other words, not all software is created equal in the AI boom.
On Monday, Mizuho analyst Gregg Moskowitz downgraded shares of Adobe $(ADBE)$ to neutral from outperform and upgraded those of CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD) to outperform from neutral.
Shares of Adobe were down 1.9%% in recent midday trading Monday, while shares of CrowdStrike were up 1.6%.
Moskowitz wrote that Adobe has been an "extremely frustrating stock" to own. He said he's grown more cautious on the design-software company due to increasing competition from AI-native platforms and low-cost design tools.
He noted a lack of catalysts for the stock, saying that, as AI quality improves in the space and becomes more capable of creating finished products, the demand for Adobe will slow.
On the same day of his Adobe downgrade, Moskowitz turned more bullish on what he said could be a cybersecurity winner.
He said CrowdStrike will be able to capitalize on AI security, given it has the "strongest set of offerings in the space," with healthy demand across the platform.
Moskowitz said that Anthropic's Project Glasswing, using the Claude Mythos AI model launched this month, was a catalyst that will generate business for the company that he believes is a top innovator in the enterprise security space.
Moskowitz's move on Adobe comes after several analysts downgraded shares of the company in recent months, including William Blair's Arjun Bhatia, who downgraded the stock to perform, and Argus Research's Joseph Bonner, who downgraded the stock to hold last month.
See also: Adobe is betting a quarter of its value against the so-called SaaSpocalypse
Of the 39 analysts surveyed by FactSet who cover Adobe, 44% are now bullish, down from 56% two months ago, while the percentage of those who are neutral increased to 49% from 34%. The rest of the analysts are bearish.
Over the same time frame, the percentage of analysts who are bullish on CrowdStrike's stock has increased to 77% from 68%, while those who are neutral fell to 23% from 32%.
Bonner told MarketWatch that, while he considers himself a skeptic that generative artificial intelligence will entirely wipe out the software business, he's concerned about Adobe, given that generative AI capabilities have made major advances recently.
He said that while competition from Adobe's rivals Figma $(FIG)$ and Canva has been brewing for over a year, an announcement of a leadership transition at Adobe last month has drawn attention recently to the stock's woes.
The announcement last March that Shantanu Narayen, Adobe's CEO of 18 years, will transition from his post to be a board member. That was a "head-scratching moment" for Bonner, who noted management's lack of a public plan for his replacement.
Bonner said that CrowdStrike is on the other end of the spectrum when it comes to how software companies are monetizing AI, noting that more cyber threats from advances in AI will mean more business in the space.
Read more: How SaaSpocalypse fears actually bolstered SAP profits by over $150 million.
Adobe's stock has tumbled 31.2% so far this year, while CrowdStrike shares have slipped 2.9%. In comparison, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF IGV has lost 19.1% in 2026 while the S&P 500 index SPX has gained 4.7%.
-Hannah Pedone
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 27, 2026 13:29 ET (17:29 GMT)
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