Piper Jaffray raised the target price for Autodesk and said it has "optimistic expectations" for the maker of design software in the fourth quarter. "We believe Autodesk should trade in line with the [peer] group based on expectations for its continued revenue outperformance and operating margin improvements," Piper Jaffray said. The research firm raised its third-quarter estimates to earnings of 36 cents per share on revenue of $293 million, up from earnings of 34 cents per share on revenue of $280 million. Piper Jaffray maintained an "outperform" rating and raised its target price to $58 from $48. The research firm said it expects the company to report strong results for an unadvertised promotion that offered AutoCad 2000i users to upgrade to the "Inventor Series" for a low price. "We believe this promo was very successful at crossgrading customers to the Inventor platform," Piper Jaffray said. Autodesk will report third-quarter results on Nov. 18.


Source : Forbes