New Autodesk Earnings Trends: Losses (ADSK)

Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) is trading lower after its earnings, or at least after its losses.  The software and design assistance company did beat expectations with $0.31 EPS as revenue dropped 18% to $49 million.  First Call had consensus estimates at $0.21 EPS and $484.5 million in revenue.  The good news stops there.

The company issued  guidance of EPS of $0.00 to $0.12, excluding $0.20 in non-recurring items, and on revenue of $400 million to $440 million.  This compares with estimates of $0.27 EPS and $472 million in revenue.

Autodesk used to give much longer-term guidance.  It noted the current uncertainty of the economy as the reason it is only providing guidance for the next quarter.

Here is where this gets tricky…. The stock closed down 1.7% at $14.06 today and is down at $13.65 in the after-hours session.  The fact that the 52-week trading range is $12.45 to $41.68 is not the point.  The company doesn’t really dwell on “quarterly losses” here, but that is what it is telling you it will see on a net-net earnings basis. The past quarter had a loss of -$0.40 EPS, so next quarter will mark “another one” against the company.

Charges happen and are not part of the non-GAAP measurement that  traders and tech analysts like to use, but for quants and for screeners out there it will matter.  Unfortunately, no one is used to seeing any “-” signs in front of its results.

Jon C. Ogg
February 26, 2009