Autodesk Announces Q4 Beat, 9% Job Cuts: Stock Volatile After-Hours But Retail Sentiment Flips To ‘Bullish’

The company said once the sales and marketing optimization is complete, it expects to deliver best-in-industry GAAP operating margins.

Autodesk, Inc. (ADSK) stock saw volatility in Thursday’s after-hours session after the design software provider reported better-than-expected fiscal year 2025 fourth-quarter results and issued above-consensus guidance. The company also announced optimization initiatives that included job cuts to reallocate resources to critical areas.

The San Francisco, California-based company reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings (EPS) of $2.29, exceeding the year-ago quarter’s $2.09 and the Finchat-compiled consensus estimate of $2.14.

Revenue rose 12% year over year (YoY) to $1.639 billion, just ahead of the consensus estimate of $1.63 billion. 

The top and bottom-line results also exceeded the guidance issued in late November.

Design revenue climbed 12% to $1.36 billion, or roughly 83% of the total revenue, and “make revenue” jumped 28% to $176 million. 

The non-GAAP operating margin expanded YoY to 37% from 36%. During the quarter, the company generated operating cash flow of $692 million and free cash flow of $678 million.

Among the other operational metrics, the company noted that subscription plan revenue climbed 14% to $1.52 billion and net revenue retention rate within the range of 100% to 110% on a constant currency basis.

While deferred revenue fell 3% to $4.13 billion, unbilled revenue climbed $966 million to $2.81 billion, and remaining performance obligations (RPO) rose 14% to $6.94 billion.

Autodesk expects first-quarter adjusted EPS of $2.14-$2.17 and revenue of $1.6 billion to $1.61 billion. Analysts, on average, estimate $2.07 and $1.597 billion, respectively.

It guided fiscal year 2026 non-GAAP EPS to be in the range of $9.34-$9.67 and revenue in the range of $6.895 billion to $6.965 billion, exceeding the consensus estimates of $8.32 and $6.894 billion, respectively.

The annual billings are expected to be between $7.06 billion and $7.21 billion. 

The company also announced a worldwide restructuring program that included the elimination of about 9% of its workforce or about 1,350 employees, other exit costs and facility reductions. It expects to incur total pre-tax restructuring charges of about $135 million to $150 million.

CEO Andrew Anagnost said that as the company focuses on the “convergence of design and make in the cloud,” it has decided to reallocate internal resources toward the critical areas. 

“We expect consistent growth momentum and disciplined execution, reinforced by persistent share repurchases, to deliver sustainable shareholder value over many years,” he added.

Once the sales and marketing optimization is complete, the company expects to deliver best-in-industry GAAP operating margins.

On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment toward Autodesk stock improved to ‘bullish’ (64/100) from ‘extremely bearish’ a day ago, with the message volume continuing to remain at an ‘extremely high’ level.

A bullish watcher said the stock could push toward the $350 level following the earnings.

Autodesk stock rose sharply in the after-hours session, immediately following the earnings release. However, it gave back the gains and swung between gains and losses in a tight range before ending the session up 1.15% at $285.60.

The stock has moved in a 52-week range of $195.32 to $326.62 and it has lost about 4.5% year-to-date.

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