Autodesk Still Deserves Better

"The combination of a strong market position, industry and geographic diversification, a strong balance sheet, and excellent cash flow positions us for continued success."

You'd think that the speaker above was a dyed-in-the-wool Fool. Autodesk (Nasdaq: ADSK  ) CEO Carl Bass could have been talking about any of our best Stock Advisor picks, but he was of course referring to his own company's second quarter. That magic brew of balanced strengths brought on 27% non-GAAP earnings growth to $0.56 per share on $620 million in revenue -- 18% above the year-ago quarter. The market agreed with Bass and sent the share price on an immediate 12% skyward trip.

Autodesk's business balance is indeed impressive. Name another company that competes with Adobe Systems (Nasdaq: ADBE  ) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL  ) in movie-making graphics products, and with Siemens (NYSE: SI  ) in industrial design solutions. Autodesk is doing it on a global level, too, with 18% sales growth in the Asia-Pacific region and 31% in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. And this isn't even a giant tech conglomerate like IBM (NYSE: IBM  ) or Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ  ) -- it's a $9 billion mid-cap minnow.

Still, as nice as today's price pop is, I still think that Autodesk deserves better. It's an excellently managed company with the product leadership, veteran management, and long-term mindset needed to move from merely good to truly great. Yet the stock is still 22% cheaper today than it was on New Year's Eve. I thought the market overreacted in February, and Autodesk looked extremely tempting in March. That it's a five-star CAPS stock with a 94% approval rating bolsters my optimism.

Global gains, strong growth, diverse product lines, brilliant management -- and all for pennies on the dollar. What's not to love?

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