With close to an hour before the closing bell Autodesk shares were down 6.4% at $52.70 . We had also seen 11.2 million shares trade with an hour or so until the close – about 6 times the normal trading volume.
Autodesk was up less than 1% on Thursday ahead of earnings, but the after-hours reaction had shares up around $59.00. In its earnings report it forecasted a revenue growth of 7% to 9%, which translates to $2.43 billion to $2.48 billion. Also mentioned in the report was a large growth in its subscribers totaling about 2 million in the second quarter.
What makes Friday’s move even more confusing is that analysts were by and large favorable. J.P. Morgan raised its target to $73 from $66 and Pacific Crest raised its price target to $66 from $60. RBC even raised its target up to $70 on Friday.
It is hard to imagine that this would be dragged down so much harder than the broad market due to geopolitical news out of Russia and the Ukraine. Still, this is a Friday in August and anything can happen on summer Fridays. Lastly, getting to sell right at 52-week or all-time highs has its allure – particularly if you are getting worried about the state of the recovery.
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