Autodesk, Inc. Q4 FY2026 earnings call

Andrew Anagnost mentioned strong fiscal 26 results, successful transformation in enterprise software, redefining business model, evolving go-to-market, reimagining products, scaling platform. Dinesh discussed quarterly financial performance, including Q4 revenue, billings, margins, capital allocation. Autodesk is focused on convergence of design and make in cloud, enabled by platform, industry clouds, and AI. Examples include progress in AECO, manufacturing, AI efforts, and partnerships. Also talked about agentic AI, data, context, expertise needed for building and scaling it, and modernizing platform and go-to-market for monetization.

Fourth quarter was robust, capping a strong fiscal year. Total revenue grew 19% as reported and 14% in constant currency, excluding new transaction model impact. Billings increased 33% as reported and 30% in constant currency, excluding new transaction model impact. Fourth quarter GAAP operating margin was 22%, non-GAAP operating margin was 38%. Fourth quarter free cash flow was $972 million. Fiscal 27 billings guidance ranges $8.48 billion to $8.58 billion, revenue guidance ranges $8.1 billion to $8.17 billion, non-GAAP operating margin guidance range is 38.5 to 39 percent, free cash flow guidance range is 2.7 to 2.8 billion dollars.

Fiscal 27 guidance is based on bottom-up sales forecast, assuming macroeconomic environment remains stable. Anticipates potential disruption from sales restructuring in fiscal 27, embedded risk into guidance. Billings guidance ranges $8.48 billion to $8.58 billion, revenue guidance ranges $8.1 billion to $8.17 billion, non-GAAP operating margin guidance range is 38.5 to 39 percent, free cash flow guidance range is 2.7 to 2.8 billion dollars. Capital allocation framework unchanged, will deploy cash to highest return opportunities, prioritize organic investment in R&D, and maintain share buyback program.

Potential disruption from sales restructuring in fiscal 27, with higher probability and impact due to focus on customer-facing sales functions. Also, the new transaction model and go-to-market optimization have associated risks, and there's the risk of customers building their own solutions which could impact Autodesk's market share.

Q: Saket Kalia asked about Autodesk's relationship with frontier models and LLMs.

A: Andrew Anagnost said Autodesk's goal is to combine frontier models, LLMs, and proprietary foundation models for better results, leveraging data, context, and expertise.

Q: Jay Bleashour asked about FORMA vs Revit, World Lab technology, and channel.

A: Andrew Anagnost discussed the trajectory of Forma and Revit, excitement about World Lab investment, and channel focus on new business creation.

Q: Adam asked about customer AI journey and consumption mix.

A: Andrew Anagnost talked about customers exploring AI for data wrangling and insights, Janesh Mojani said consumption mix was similar to previous years.

Q: Joshua Tilton asked about revenue growth guidance and conservatism.

A: Janesh Mojani said revenue growth guidance reflects prudence for near-term go-to-market optimization.

Q: Jason Salino asked about AI impact on industry headcount and growth, and Q4 linearity.

A: Andrew Anagnost talked about fewer people per project and task-based automation, Janesh Mojani discussed Q4 factors like lapping easy quarter and go-to-market impact.

Q: Marvin asked about sales organization optimization and customer needs.

A: Janesh Mojani talked about partner compensation changes and operational guardrails, Andrew Anagnost discussed customers asking for convergence.

Q: Joe Vrunck asked about API monetization and customer in-house teams.

A: Andrew Anagnost talked about API monetization of machine usage, Janesh Mojani discussed resource reallocation.

Q: Ken asked about go-to-market optimizations and resource reallocation.

A: Andrew Anagnost said go-to-market changes were baked in, Janesh Mojani talked about margin improvement and resource reallocation.

Q: Alexey Gogolev asked about data center upside.

A: Andrew Anagnost talked about data center demand and owner adoption.

Q: Tyler Radke asked about go-to-market changes and data center contribution.

A: Janesh Mojani talked about Q4 growth factors and data center contribution.

Q: Michael Turin asked about manufacturing segment strength.

A: Andrew Anagnost talked about manufacturing performing well with multi-seat adoption and feature adoption.