Shares of Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) are trading lower on Wednesday but they may have found support. The company posted earnings that were slightly better than estimates but investors are concerned about decreasing margins.
Our team of traders and technical analysts has made it our Stock of the Day.
Operating margin is the percent of profit a company has on a dollar of sales after all costs are considered. In Q3 of last year, Autodesk had an operating margin of 24%. This means that for every dollar of sales, the company kept 24 cents.
But this year, the margin has dropped to 22%. This means they are now only keeping 22 cents. This may not sound like a significant drop, but it shows that the company is becoming less efficient. This may be a bearish sign for the longer-term and some investors are selling.
It isn't a coincidence that the shares found support around the $293 level.
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As you can see on the chart, this level was resistance in October. Many of the investors and traders who sold at this resistance thought they made a good decision when the price dropped soon after.
But in early November the resistance broke and the stock gapped higher. When this happened, some of those who sold came to regret their decision to do so. A number of them decided to buy their shares back.
But they would only do so if they could buy them at the same price they were sold for.
As a result, now that the stock has dropped back to their selling prices they are placing buy orders. The large concentration of these orders has formed support at the price that had been resistance.
Sometimes stocks rally after they drop to resistance.
This happens because some of the buyers become nervous. They know that the sellers are going to go to whoever is willing to pay the highest price. They are afraid that they will be outbid by other buyers.
So, they increase their bid prices. Other nervous buyers see this and do the same thing. It could result in a snowball effect or bidding war that pushes the price up.
Levels that had been resistance can become support. Stocks tend to rally after reaching support. Shares of Autodesk may be about to move higher.
Price Action: Autodesk closed Wednesday at $290.64 per share, down 8.6%.
