The Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) has been stuck in a bear market for quite a while now, and some investors are getting impatient for a recovery. Yet even as some other major market benchmarks have managed to move closer to their former high-water marks, the Nasdaq is still more than 22% below its record high from late 2021.

The key to the Nasdaq returning to all-time highs will be for the fast-growing companies that sent the index to record levels to regain their former momentum. Unfortunately, although some businesses have rebounded, others are still seeing ongoing challenges. That's what investors are seeing from the latest financial results from Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) and Splunk (NASDAQ: SPLK) on Thursday morning, and the wide disparities in how shareholders are responding to those reports suggest that new all-time highs could still be a long way away.

Autodesk paints a pretty picture

Shares of Autodesk were up almost 9% near the open on Thursday morning. The company behind the popular AutoCAD software package for design use saw solid gains in its fiscal second-quarter report.

Autodesk's key performance metrics were encouraging. Revenue and billings for the quarter ended July 31 were both up 17% from year-earlier levels. Autodesk reported significant improvement in operating margin, with gains of 5 to 6 percentage points from where they were 12 months ago. Net revenue retention rates remained between 100% and 110%, and adjusted earnings of $1.65 per share jumped 36% year over year.

Revenue gains were consistent across geographies and product offerings. Interestingly, the AutoCAD segment saw the weakest change in year-over-year sales, but even there, a 13% rise showed the overall strength of demand for Autodesk's software.

Autodesk is upbeat about its future prospects, projecting total revenue of $4.985 billion to $5.035 billion for the current fiscal year. Adjusted earnings of $6.52 to $6.71 per share would also make shareholders happy, and with more than $2 billion in free cash flow anticipated for fiscal 2023, Autodesk is in a strong position to keep making smart moves to bolster its growth and find new pathways for success.

Splunk stock goes thunk

However, shareholders in Splunk weren't as fortunate. The stock fell 11% in early morning trading Thursday even after the data platform provider announced solid revenue gains in its fiscal second quarter.

Splunk's backward-looking numbers for the quarter ending July 31 were strong. Total revenue amounted to nearly $800 million, up 32% year over year and supported by a 59% jump in cloud-based sales. Splunk's cloud dollar-based net retention rate weighed in at 129%, showing solid loyalty from existing customers. The company now boasts 723 customers producing $1 million or more in annual recurring revenue, up 24% from where the number was 12 months ago.

However, Splunk's guidance for the near future didn't live up to high expectations. The company sees revenue of $835 million to $855 million in the third quarter, which would indicate an ongoing slowing in sequential sales gains. Even though Splunk boosted its full-year sales guidance to a new range of $3.35 billion to $3.4 billion, investors seemed disappointed by the implied annual revenue growth to roughly 26%.

The key to success for Splunk and most of its Nasdaq peers is whether they can keep drawing in new business for the products and services they provide. With so much uncertainty on the macroeconomic front, any sign that a company might not be able to sustain past growth rates results in the stock of that company getting punished. As long as investors have that attitude, it's going to be hard for the Nasdaq to work its way out of its current bear market.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

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Some readers may remember that in the middle of last year, it received interest from Autodesk. On 7 June 2021, Altium told investors that it had received a formal, non-binding, indicative proposal of A$38.50 per share.

But, while Altium appreciated the interest expressed by Autodesk, it said the offer "significantly undervalued" Altium's prospects and the company rejected the offer.

New takeover approach?

There hasn't been any official news at all from Altium.

However, the Australian Financial Review reported on comments from Bell Potter analysts that the Altium result was "cracking". They say that the achievements and progress of Altium 365 could lead to Autodesk returning with another takeover approach, partly because Autodesk can't currently provide the range of functions that Altium's service can:

Our view is Autodesk's Fusion 360 platform is lacking a high-powered ECAD offering so we believe Autodesk would still be very interested in Altium and may come back with a revised offer.

However, the previously-rejected offer of $38.50 is only 5% higher than the current Altium share price of $36.63, so I think an offer would likely need to be materially bigger than the last one to even be considered by the Altium board.

FY22 result recap

One year on from rejecting that previous offer, the ASX 200 tech share has returned to strong growth, which may have helped the Altium share price.

In FY22, it reported "strong" revenue growth of 23% to US$228.8 million. Within that, Octopart revenue soared 85% to US$50 million.

An improvement in profit margins helped Altium's earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) grow by 33% to $79.8 million and net profit after tax (NPAT) increased 57% to $55.5 million. Operating cash flow jumped 30% to $72.5 million and the full-year dividend increased 18%.

In FY23, Altium is expecting to grow its revenue by another 15% to 20% to between US$255 million to US$265 million.

Altium's management is confident about the future

The Altium president Sergey Kostinsky said:

Our cloud platform Altium 365 remains well ahead of our competitors with adoption growing strongly. We now have 23% of Altium Designer subscribers who have fully adopted Altium 365 with 30% more in the process of adopting it. We are accelerating our transformative agenda for the global electronics industry where we aim to bring the business of engineering onto Altium 365 from design to supply chain and manufacturing.

Our business model transition from perpetual to term-based licenses is progressing well; 33% of new seats sold were term-based licenses. This, combined with the uptake of higher value seats that include pro and enterprise level capabilities, is driving up subscription revenue. This positive trend has accelerated our annual recurring revenue (ARR) run rate and supports our drive toward our aspirational goal of US$500 million.

Altium share price snapshot

Over the past six months, Altium shares have risen by more than 12%. But, the ASX 200 tech share is still down 18% in 2022 to date.

The post Could ASX 200 tech share Altium be in for another takeover approach? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

Even after a 125 basis point rise in the past couple of months, the Reserve Bank is poised to deliver another super-sized hike in August.

Will such drama trigger a recession?

At the very least the economy will slow down considerably, which is exactly what the central bank wants in order to bring inflation down.

If all this is causing you a headache, perhaps it's prudent to look at what ASX shares the experts are buying.

Here are three tips from two professional investors:

'Wide economic moat'

James Hardie Industries plc (ASX: JHX) shares have lost a painful 39% so far this year.

But Bell Potter Securities investment advisor Christopher Watt likes the long-term outlook.

"This building materials company mostly services the residential construction industry with its flagship fibre cement range," he told The Bull.

"James Hardie's wide economic moat should protect its ability to earn above its cost of capital over the economic cycle."

Watt's peers agree, with 12 out of 14 analysts surveyed on CMC Markets currently rating the ASX share as a buy.

"Despite a challenging macroeconomic backdrop, we view James Hardie as an attractive long-term value proposition."

'A strong fiscal year 2022 result'

Recession or not, who doesn't love a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken?

The quick-service restaurant industry enjoyed great patronage over the COVID-19 lockdown era and usually shows resilience through economic downturns.

Spotee Connect executive chair Elio D'Amato has noticed that shares for the franchisor of KFC in Australia, Collins Foods Ltd (ASX: CKF), have bounced back from a June trough.

The ASX share fell nearly 40% year-to-date until 17 June, but has since gained more than 19.4%.

"The KFC operator delivered a strong fiscal year 2022 result," he said.

"It grew group revenue by 11.1% on last year's prior corresponding period. Earnings per share grew by 24.9% and its fully franked dividend was up by 17.4%."

Collins Foods also runs KFC and Taco Bell franchises in other countries too.

"The European business is reporting same-store sales growth of 12% in the first seven weeks of the new financial year."

'A high-quality technology story'

What goes well with chicken? Chips.

While there is no ASX-listed share specialising in fried potato, Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) is an important player in the computer chip industry.

The Australian company makes software that allows chipmakers to design printed circuit boards (PCBs).

Like most technology stocks, Altium shares have deflated considerably this year, losing around 34%.

Despite this, Watt likes the long-term narrative.

"Altium is a high-quality technology story," he said.

"[It] has been steadily increasing its recurring revenue base over the past decade, with a shift to subscriptions."

With the valuation down so much this year, Altium could also attract some corporate interest.

"In our view, Altium is also a potential takeover target," he said.

"US engineering software giant Autodesk Inc (NASDAQ: ADSK) lodged an indicative bid at $38.50 a share, but the deal failed to materialise last year."

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Investors were pleased to see the stock market regain some ground late Friday from the worst of its intraday declines. However, Wall Street still seems a little bit concerned about the prospects for the high-growth stocks that dominate the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQ: .IXIC). As of 11:45 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq was up 1%, but that trailed gains in the broader market.

Making news today were a couple of companies with Nasdaq listings that drew the attention of professional stock analysts.

Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) shares were down sharply, but shares of Saia (NASDAQ: SAIA) posted modest gains following Wall Street comments. Below, you'll see more of what analysts were saying about the companies and how their businesses look.

Autodesk deals with downbeat comments

Autodesk shares were down more than 8% in mid-morning trading on Monday. The maker of computer-aided design (CAD) and other software tools for architects, engineers, and other creative professionals drew negative comments from stock analysts as it prepares to release its latest quarterly financial results later this week.

Analysts at Deutsche Bank downgraded their rating on Autodesk from buy to hold. They also cut their price target on the stock by $50 per share, setting a new level of $225.

The analysts based their move on things they've heard from Autodesk's partner channels that suggest the environment for subscription-based software is shifting. With some customers opting not to enter into long-term contracts, Deutsche Bank expects first-quarter financial results could end up being less than stellar. That might in turn point to a weaker outlook for the full year.

The big question for Autodesk is whether a recession is likely. Professional demand for Autodesk's products is somewhat cyclical, so a downturn could come at a bad time for the software company.

Autodesk has already seen its stock fall by half from its recent highs, so some investors are looking at the current valuation as being more attractive than ever. Yet that doesn't mean that Autodesk might not see its stock drop further following its earnings results, as many of its peers have suffered share-price declines even after encouraging financial performance.

Saia keeps on trucking

Elsewhere, shares of Saia were up nearly 2%. The less-than-truckload shipping specialist earned some favorable comments from stock analysts amid a challenging environment for the logistics industry.

Analysts at UBS upgraded Saia from neutral to buy. The company also set a new price target on Saia stock of $240 per share, up $27 from its previous target.

UBS acknowledged that 2022 is likely to be a tough year for Saia and the rest of the trucking industry, with high fuel prices weighing on profitability. However, the analysts believe the longer-term growth strategy Saia has in place remains strong. With the stock already having lost close to half of its value since late 2021, UBS believes Saia's valuation gives it a favorable risk-reward profile.

That's not to say that things look clear from here. Trucking stocks broadly face labor shortages and wage pressures, and that's adding to higher fuel costs in eating into profit margins.

Saia is far smaller than the leaders in its industry, and while that makes the smaller company nimbler to react to changing conditions, Saia lacks the scale to last through conditions that larger rivals can endure more easily.

A lot of stocks are on sale, but that doesn't make them all great buy candidates. Saia could do well in the long run, but the challenges it faces are very real.

This article was originally published on Fool.com. All figures quoted in US dollars unless otherwise stated.

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The rise in the Altium share price has come on the back of mixed news out of the company. A lofty takeover bid from a US multinational turbocharged the Altium share price back in June. But Altium has also flagged that full-year revenues could fall short of expectations.

Let's take a closer look at these recent developments and try to work out what it all might mean for the Altium share price.

What's going on?

The Altium share price really took off on 7 June, after it revealed that it had received a takeover bid from US software company Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK). Under the proposal, Autodesk would have acquired 100% of the shares in Altium for a price of $38.50 a share. On the day of the announcement, the Altium share price was just $27.21.

Although Altium rejected the offer, foreign interest – especially from a US multinational with a market cap over US$70 billion – often makes local investors perk up and take notice. And the fact that Autodesk was willing to offer a premium of at least 40% over the prevailing share price sent the strong signal that Altium shares were being severely undervalued by the market.

The Altium share price jumped an astonishing 39% higher the day of the announcement, closing at $37.83.

Despite some simmering media speculation, Altium released a follow-up statement in mid-July, stating that it had received no further takeover bids from Autodesk.

Recent movements in the Altium share price

Since that massive June surge, the Altium share price has slid slightly lower. As at the time of writing, Altium shares are trading at $35.19, around 7% below their 7 June price, and roughly 12% short of the 52-week high of $40.21 they reached last October.

All eyes will be on the Altium share price when the company releases its full-year FY21 results on 23 August – although Altium has already tried to temper market expectations.

In a trading update released on 18 June, Altium flagged that it expected full-year revenues to come in at the low end of its previously issued guidance of between US$190 million to US$195 million, weighed down by a disappointing first-half result.

Commenting on the update, Altium CFO Martin Ive stated that "momentum has returned to Altium's business with double-digit growth in the second half, however, after a slow first half due to the impact of COVID and our pivot to the cloud, the full year is likely to be at, or slightly below, the low end of our guidance."

The post The Altium (ASX:ALU) share price is up 20% over the past 6 months appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

That was despite many of the ASX 200 blue-chip shares having lacklustre weeks. The major ASX banks finished the week more or less flat after a strong performance in recent weeks. A sector that performed even worse was ASX travel shares.

Companies like Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN), Corporate Travel Management Ltd (ASX: CTD), Webjet Ltd (ASX: WEB) and Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) all fell more than 3% over the week, with Corporate Travel falling more than 6%. Lockdowns in Vitoria, as well as a recent extension of the overseas travel ban by the Federal Government, may have been factors at play here. Other ASX blue chips like Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL), Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW) and Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES) all fell over the week as well.

Miners, tech shares dominate ASX 200 gains

But in these companies' place, some other ASX sectors were shining. ASX resources shares had a fairly strong week, with BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP), Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: FMG) and Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) all edging higher last week on the back of a robust iron ore price.

Fortescue was the standout iron miner, rising 1.1%. But these weren't the only miners that enjoyed some green last week. ASX gold miners also put on a strong performance. Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX: NCM), Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) and Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX: GOR) all rose strongly over the period, supported by a bump in the gold price late in the week.

As we touched on earlier, ASX tech shares were standout performers last week. This sector's gains were lead by Altium Limited (ASX: ALU), which shot up close to 30% over the week. Altium received a takeover offer mid-week from US company Autodesk Inc (NASDAQ: ADSK), which Altium informed investors it had rejected for "undervaluing the company". Altium's fellow WAAAXer Appen Ltd (ASX: APX) was also a top performer in the tech space, rising more than 13% over the week.

Meanwhile, Afterpay Ltd (ASX: APT) rose close to 10% and back to over $100 per share, while Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) enjoyed a tamer 2.6% gain.

How did the markets end the week?

It was a bit of a mixed bag for ASX 200 shares last week. Monday kicked things off on the wrong foot with a drop of 0.18%. Tuesday reversed this somewhat with a gain of 0.15%. But Wednesday saw negative sentiment return with another fall of 0.31%.

Investors seemed to shake off the gloom on Thursday and Friday, though, and enjoyed gains of 0.44% and 0.13% respectively, Since the ASX 200 started off at 7,295.4 points and finished up at 7,312.3 points, the week's gain stands at 0.23%.

Meanwhile, the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) had an even better week in the green last week. The All Ords started out at 7,543.3 points and finished up at 7,577.2 points, a rise of 0.45%.

Which ASX 200 shares were the biggest winners and losers?

Time now for our most salacious segment, where we look at the ASX 200's best winners and poorest losers. So put the kettle on and fetch the bikkies, while we, as always, start with the losers:

The ASX 200's wooden spooner last week was mining services company NRW Holdings. Despite its sizable 7.4% fall, there was no real news or announcements out of the company that can easily explain this drop. However, it's worth noting that the markets have been sending this company down for a while now, with the shares down close to 50% since early February.

Next up was wealth management company HUB24. As with NRW, there was no official catalyst we can point to for the company's 6.4% fall last week. But unlike NRW, HUB24 has been a top performer in 2021 so far, up almost 19% year to date and more than 32% since early March. Perhaps some good old fashioned profit-taking was at play here.

As we flagged earlier, Corporate Travel Management was another poor performer last week.

And, after a strong few weeks, Virgin Money UK was the worst ASX bank last week, dropping a touch over 5%. Even so, the shares are still up more than 57% year to date.

With the losers out of the way, let's take a gander at last week's winners:

As you can see, Altium was the best performing share by a mile last week. Given that Autodesk offered up $38.50 per share for the circuit board software company, it's understandable that investors propelled the company towards this offered price (although it finished up the week at $35).

ASX financial company Iress was also attracting some serious buying pressure last week. This seems to be the result of takeover rumours aswirl. The shares remained up 20% by the end of the week, despite Iress telling the markets that it had in fact, not received any offers as of yet.

Whitehaven Coal also had another strong week, and hit a new 52-week high on Friday. Rising coal prices have been kind to Whitehaven, and the company is now up 26.5% year to date.

And finally, biotech company Mesoblast was also enjoying some time in the sun, despite no real news or announcements coming out of the company last week. Mesoblast is now up 23.5% over the past month.

A wrap of the ASX 200 blue-chip shares

Before we go, here is a look at the major ASX 200 blue-chip shares as we commence yet another week on the ASX boards:

And finally, here is the lay of the land for some leading market indicators:

• S&P/ASX 200 Index (XJO) at 7,312.3 points.
• All Ordinaries Index (XAO) at 7,577.2 points.
• Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJX: .DJI) at 34,479.6 points after rising 0.04% on Friday night (our time).
• Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) going for US$38,822 per coin.
• Gold (spot) swapping hands for US$1,862 per troy ounce.
• Iron ore asking US$214.40 per tonne.
• Crude oil (Brent) trading at US$72.69 per barrel.
• Australian dollar buying 77.04 US cents.
• 10-year Australian Government bonds yielding 1.49% per annum.

That's all folks. See you next week!

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