1. Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 55
Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) is a leading software company for designers, engineers, and builders. The 3D printing company helps people create and design anything. Its technology spans architecture, engineering, construction, product design, and manufacturing. Its 3D software program, AutoCAD is its most popular product. Professionals, architects, and engineers use the software to design buildings and 3D models.
The company is leveraging AI to explore new opportunities and capabilities. Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) recently announced they were building Autodesk Forma, an architecture, engineering, construction, and operations (AECO) cloud. The cloud platform will be able to connect project data to unify workflows across teams.
In addition to that, the company is advancing its outcome-based building information modeling (BIM) and customer workflows using artificial intelligence. Having said that, Autodesk AI facilitates the understanding of complex data. The company also launched the beta version of Autodesk Assistant in Autodesk Construction Cloud. With the launch, users can now ask questions about documents using natural language prompts.
In the fiscal second quarter of 2025, Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) logged revenue worth $1.51 billion, up by 12%. Of this, recurring revenue represented 97% of the total revenue. Autodesk’s (NASDAQ:ADSK) growth trajectory proves the company’s strategy is winning. What sets ADSK apart is its ability to capture long-term trends. The company’s growing capital investments supported by increasing reconstruction and infrastructure on a global scale, position ADSK as a market leader in the 3D printing industry.
Polen Focus Growth Strategy stated the following regarding Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) in its Q2 2024 investor letter:
“Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) and Accenture were also notable absolute detractors in the quarter. With Autodesk, most of the stock’s price weakness came in April. The company announced that it would delay the release of its earnings and 10-K filing as it launches an internal investigation regarding its practices on some non-GAAP financial metrics. Upon further analysis, we were encouraged to hear that they were taking this very seriously and being very comprehensive in their investigation. Ultimately, Accenture announced it was closing the investigation and that no re-statements would be required. As discussed in the following section, we chose to exit the position in favor of a more attractive investment.
We sold our small position in Autodesk to help fund our purchase of Shopify. We still think Autodesk is an advantaged business, with 95%+ recurring revenue, dominant in its end market, and nice tailwinds behind digitization in that end market. It should be a durable grower over time, perhaps with continued fits and starts, but we found the risk-reward around Shopify to be more compelling.”
Overall, ADSK ranks first among the 10 best 3D printing stocks to buy right now. While we acknowledge the potential of 3D printing companies, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than ADSK but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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