Argus analyst Joseph Bonner kept his Hold rating on Autodesk but raised his FY19 EPS target to 94c from 90c after the company's most recent earnings beat. The analyst notes that Q2 marks the 2nd consecutive quarter of profitability and believes that Autodesk "may have just turned the corner" on its business transition, as the management looks for positive earnings in FY19 and a ramp in FY20. Bonner attributes his neutral stance to concerns about the volatility of the construction and manufacturing sectors and the yet-to-materialize promises of increased infrastructure spending from the Trump White House.

Autodesk announced an interoperability agreement with the Nemetschek Group to improve open collaboration and efficiencies for the architecture, engineering, construction and operations, or AECO, and media and entertainment industries. The agreement will enhance existing interoperability between the two companies' industry cloud and desktop products and improve the fluent exchange of information across solutions. Whether constructing buildings or highways or producing media assets, working with cloud-connected tools powers automation and unlocks valuable insights for better decisions at every stage of a project. But too often, people, processes, and data are siloed due to software and file incompatibility, resulting in inefficient workflows. Under the terms of the agreement, Autodesk and the Nemetschek Group will provide mutual access to their APIs and industry clouds, thereby giving developer access to Autodesk solutions including AutoCAD, Revit, 3ds Max and Maya, as well as Autodesk Forma and Autodesk Construction Cloud, similarly to Nemetschek solutions including Allplan, Archicad, Bluebeam, Maxon One, Vectorworks as well as Nemetschek's relevant cloud platforms. This will enable the two companies to improve upon existing data exchanges and open new data-centric workflows that span disciplines and industries.