Autodesk

ADSK on Nasdaq. Autodesk sells design and engineering software to architects, engineers, builders, manufacturers, and media companies. Market value $46.3bn.

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Price checks use the past 12 months to July 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to January 2026.

Should I look at this?

Worth a closer look

Read what could go wrong

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

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Cash yield
past 12 months to July 2026
5.9%fair

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $5.87 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
past 12 months to July 2026
23.4×full

You pay 23.4 years of operating profit for the business. The average large US company costs around 18.

Return on capital
five annual reports to January 2026
37.8%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns 38 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 100 of 100. Price score: 63 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$231.28 a share, 25% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $185.50 to $324.00.

Pays no dividend

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

1.5
2.0
1.3
1.6
2.4
2.8
2022202320242025202612 monthsto Jul '26
Revenue
$4.4bn$5.0bn$5.5bn$6.1bn$7.2bn
Operating margin
14.1%19.8%20.5%22.1%21.9%
Debt to equity
3.122.011.240.880.82
Shares outstanding
0.22bn0.21bn0.21bn0.21bn0.21bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Nothing unusual
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)8 of 9
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)No
  • Debt0.82× equity
  • Revenue growth, five yearsStrong, 13.7% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesYes, 3% fewer since 2022

The quarter to July 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $2 billion last quarter, up 16% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $492 million, up 57% on a year ago.
  • It keeps 26 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 21 cents a year earlier.
  • Spare cash over the past 12 months: $2.8 billion, up from $1.9 billion.
  • 2% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
  • It has $604 million more cash than debt. A year ago debt was $497 million more than cash.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in each of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
October 2024$1.6bn
January 2025$1.6bn
April 2025$1.6bn
July 2025$1.8bn
October 2025$1.9bn
January 2026$2.0bn
April 2026$1.9bn
July 2026$2.0bn
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
October 2024$275m
January 2025$303m
April 2025$152m
July 2025$313m
October 2025$343m
January 2026$316m
April 2026$491m
July 2026$492m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
27 November 2026
Last annual report (10-K)
3 March 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
27 November 2026

Who owns it

6 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 6 last quarter. 1,193 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26

Sold out this quarter

Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

3 investors own more than 5%.

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

In the last 12 months, 4 insiders bought $2m of shares on the open market.

  • CAHILL JOHN T
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    23 June 2026
    Shares
    2,000
    Price
    $189.20
    Value
    $378,400
  • Anagnost Andrew
    President and CEO, Director
    Bought
    Date
    16 June 2026
    Shares
    2,460
    Price
    $202.66
    Value
    $498,544
  • Moorjani Janesh
    EVP, Chief Financial Officer
    Bought
    Date
    15 June 2026
    Shares
    2,500
    Price
    $197.67
    Value
    $494,175
  • Smith Stacy J
    Director
    Bought
    Date
    29 May 2026
    Shares
    3,435
    Price
    $231.17
    Value
    $794,054

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the warning signs we check for were found.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 3 Mar 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 28 Aug 2026 and 9 later 8-Ks.

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

Cheap for a reason is the question the numbers cannot answer.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

What changed in the risks this year

Companies must list what could hurt them each year. These are the parts that changed since last year’s report.

  • We are dependent on international revenue and operations, exposing us to significant international regulatory, economic, intellectual property, collections, currency exchange rate, taxation, political, and other risks, which could adversely impact our financial results.

    Could happen
    In addition, in recent years, the United States has instituted or proposed changes to foreign trade policy, including the negotiation or termination of trade agreements, the imposition of new or increased tariffs on products imported from certain countries; economic sanctions on individuals, corporations, or countries; and other government regulations affecting trade between the United States and other countries in which we do business. For example, the United States and other global actors have continued to increase sanctions and export restrictions as a result of the war against Ukraine launched by Russia, the geopolitical landscape with respect to China, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, and other risks. Additionally, recent executive actions and executive branch policies in the United States, such as those communicated in a February 2025 memorandum regarding a change in U.S. policy with respect to the negotiation and imposition of digital services taxes and regulations by other countries, suggest a broader purview for changes in U.S. trade policy as a component of U.S. foreign policy. For example, since March 2025 the United States has imposed additional Section 232 tariffs on various commodities, including steel, aluminum, passenger vehicles and trucks (and components for such vehicles), and other industry-specific targets. Between February 2025 and February 2026, the United States placed additional fentanyl-related tariffs on most goods from China, Canada and Mexico (with an exception for goods that qualify for duty-free treatment under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement); and between April 2025 and February 2026 placed additional reciprocal tariffs on most imports from U.S. trading partners other than Canada, Mexico, Russia, Belarus, Cuba, and North Korea. These additional U.S. tariffs were implemented under authorities asserted in the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”) and rescinded on February 24, 2026, following a Supreme Court decision invalidating the use of IEEPA to authorize these tariffs. The availability, timing, and amount of any related refunds associated with payments of these duties remain uncertain and subject to further legal, regulatory, and administrative action. Beginning February 24, 2026, the U.S. government implemented a new, global “temporary import surcharge” of 10% on many of the same products affected by the prior reciprocal tariffs, under authorities provided for in Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, supplementing existing non-IEEPA measures. Additional trade-related investigations by the U.S. government are in progress and could result in the imposition of additional tariffs.
    Read more
  • We may not be able to predict subscription renewal rates and their impact on our future revenue and operating results.

    Could happen
    In addition, we generally recognize subscription revenue over the term of the respective contracts, which typically range from 1-year to 3-years. As a result, most of the revenue we report in each quarter is the result of subscriptions entered into during previous quarters. Consequently, a decline in new or renewed subscriptions in any one quarter may not be reflected in our revenue results for that quarter but will negatively impact our revenue in future quarters. Accordingly, the effect of significant downturns in sales and market acceptance of our services, and changes in our attrition rate, may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods.
    Read more

Read it in the annual report

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.