"The sharp downturn of the global economy is substantially impacting our business," said Carl Bass, Autodesk president and CEO. "Our third quarter net income will include the benefit of some reductions to previous cost estimates. In addition we have begun to take actions to reduce our cost structure in this uncertain economic environment which we believe will position the company to emerge from this downturn in a stronger financial and competitive position." Yesterday, we saw American Technology Research reiterating its Buy rating and $30 price target. Following Autodesk's pre-announced earnings two weeks ago, the firm believed that "most investors understand the magnitude of the miss..." and noted that Wall Street expectations have come down sharply, suggesting that estimate resets could be "needed to make the stock work." In a recent move the company announced the sponsorship of AskNature.org, the world's first biomimicry database, featuring biology-inspired design strategies. Architects, designers and engineers can access and harness nature's billions of years of evolution through this free, online public-domain library, filled with some of nature's best strategies, organized by function and explained with illustrations and in language relevant to designers. "Autodesk provides software that helps simplify sustainable design decisions in each industry we serve--providing our customers with design intelligence that enables smarter design decisions, whether they are designing a building, a train, a shoe or a city," said Lynelle Cameron, Autodesk director of sustainability. "It's for this reason we're proud to be the founding sponsor of AskNature.org.

Disclosure: The author does not own any of the stocks mentioned above.