Buy ADSK by Aug 26, 2026.

At first glance, Autodesk's 45x trailing P/E looks expensive -- but that's an accounting illusion from years of converting customers off one-time licenses onto subscriptions, which deferred revenue and suppressed reported earnings. The real number is forward EPS of $14.11, putting the stock at just 17x next year's earnings. For a business with 91% gross margins, $2.4B in annual free cash flow, and a near-monopoly on software used by architects, engineers, and manufacturers, 17x is cheap. The moat is durable. …