UBS reiterated a Buy rating and $65.00 price target on Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) ahead of the company's 2Q16 earnings results. Analyst Brent Thill has low expectations going into earnings as ADSK stock is down 9% YTD. The company is scheduled to release its earnings on Thursday August 27.

Thill commented, "ADSK stock is down 9% YTD, trailing Nasdaq Comp.'s +7% and peer ADBE +18%. In our Aug. 3 deep dive note (link: Revisiting our Thesis...), we explored the reasons for this underperformance and concluded the best solution is an enhanced playbook for ADSK's business model transition. We believe this could come with FQ2 earnings, though more likely at the 9/29 analyst day. FQ2 results should get less attention – we expect respectable results based on our checks. Questions remain about forward guidance, especially for the next few years leading up to a normalized state of near 100% recurring revs (worth EPS ~$4.00), renewed growth, and much higher op margins. We believe ADSK could double the share buyback authorization from approx. $700M to $1.5Bn with ~$3Bn of cash on hand. Valuation appears attractive at EV/S 4.7x CY16E vs. ADBE 7.1x."

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Shares of Autodesk closed at $54.86 yesterday.