Adobe Systems, maker of the popular Photoshop editing software, today reported stronger than expected first-quarter sales and earnings. For the quarter ended February 28, the company earned US$54.2 million, or 23 cents per share, on sales of $296.9 million. In the same period last year, it earned $49.8 million, or 20 cents per share, on sales of $267.9 million. Excluding investment losses, Adobe’s pro forma profit was 25 cents a share. The results beat Wall Street expectations — analysts on average had expected the company to earn 22 cents a share before items on total revenue of nearly $284 million.