Autodesk publish FY2017 results, $2 billion revenue, net loss widens

Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), the global software company, has reported final quarter and full year results for the year ended January 31, 2017. The company has continued to make progress during their business model transition, however while gross revenue remained above $2 billion, this represents a year-on-year decline of $473 million.

Business model transition phase

As previously reported Autodesk moved from a license based model to one of subscription bringing the company more in line with other software enterprises such as Adobe. Subscription figures increased by 21% to 3.11 million during the 12 month reporting period.

Autodesk subscription revenue consists of three components, firstly maintenance plan revenue from perpetual software products. Second, maintenance revenue from term-based product subscriptions and flexible enterprise business agreements. Finally, revenue from cloud service offerings.

For the full year Autodesk made a net loss of $579.2 million, an increase of $248.7 million on FY2016.

Forecasts for 2018

The company also announced forecasts for the coming year, in summary revenue is likely to be flat while subscription numbers increase by 600 – 650 thousand. For 2018 the company forecast GAAP EPS of -$2.65 to -$2.40.

Regarding today’s results Amar Hanspal, co-CEO, “Autodesk’s market-leading products are revolutionizing how customers design, engineer and make anything.” Autodesk’s share price reached an all time high this week, and only traded marginally lower ahead of the earnings release with a 2% decrease after hours at the time of writing. Hanspal says,

We finished the fiscal year on a high note with triple-digit year-over-year growth in new model subscriptions and new model ARR, which demonstrates our customers’ readiness to adopt our new offerings. We’re particularly pleased with the success of cloud subscriptions where our best-in-class BIM 360 and Fusion offerings drove more than a 150 percent increase year-over-year and represent Autodesk’s increasing footprint in construction and manufacturing.

Andrews Anagnost, co-CEO said, “We made exceptional progress on our business model transition in fiscal 2017 as we successfully navigated the move to subscription-only sales.” Regarding the change in business model Anagnost added, “We’re well positioned for the next phase of the transition where we’ll offer our maintenance customers an easy and cost effective path to move to product subscription.”

Scott Herren, CFO remarked, “Record new model subscription additions and continued cost control contributed to our strong fourth quarter results.”

Herren says Autodesk has, “Invested in critical areas to fuel the transition and the long-term health of our business, while simultaneously reducing non-GAAP spend by three percent for the fiscal year. We’re starting fiscal 2018 from a position of strength, which gives us added confidence in our ability to achieve our long-term targets and drive long-term value creation for Autodesk shareholders.“

Autodesk will host a call with investors this evening, and Industry will bring you more news about the company as we have it. To be the first with all the latest news about the Industry and related technology, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on social media.