Autodesk Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) rose 4.2% in extended trading after reporting earnings that beat analyst estimates. The software company’s Q4 earnings fell 25% from a year earlier to $0.40 a share, beating the Capital IQ estimate of $0.34. Revenue slipped 3.4% from a year earlier $586.6 million, beating the consensus estimate of $571 million.
Autodesk estimated Q1 2015 revenue of $560 million to $575 million, compared with the consensus forecast of $552 million. Q1 2014 revenue was $570 million. EPS for the quarter is seen at $0.19 to $0.22, vs. expectations of $0.36 per share, if comparable. The stock rose 4.2% to $57.02 in late trading.
Shares of Williams Companies Inc. (NYSE:WMB) were rising in Wednesday’s after-market after agreeing to sell its natural gas pipeline and processing facilities in Canada to Williams Partners LP for $1.2 billion in stock and cash. The assets include an off-gas processing plant in the Canadian oil sands near Fort McMurray, Alberta, along with around 260 miles of natural gas liquids and olefins pipelines. WPZ also will receive a natural gas liquids and olefins fractionation plant and a butylene/butane splitter facility 200 miles south of Fort McMurray at Redwater.
The companies expect to close the transaction on Thursday, Feb. 28. WPZ said the deal should add immediately to its distributable cash flow, likely boosting the amount available for shareholder distributions by $135 million to $160 million over the final 10 months of 2014 and up to $240 million more in distributable cash during 2015. WMB will receive 25.6 million of WPZ’s Class D payment-in-kind limited partner units as well as $25 million in cash and an increase in WMB’s capital account to maintain its 2% general-partner interest. WMB also will receive additional PIK units in lieu of quarterly cash distributions from WPZ. WMB shares were up 1.5% in late trading at $41.85 each, up 63 cents, after earlier finishing the regular session with a 0.8% decline at $41.22 a share. WPZ units were unchanged in after-hours trading at $49.79 each.
Shares of Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NASDAQ:PEIX) are up 16.7% at a new 52-week high of $10.50 in after-hours trade as the company reports a Q4 profit on stronger sales. PEIX reports Q4 EPS of $0.54, compared to a loss of $0.60 per share in Q4 a year ago. Net sales were $215.3 million, compared to $197.0 million for the fourth quarter of 2012. Analysts polled by Capital IQ were expecting a Q4 loss of $0.07 per share on revenues of $199.1 million. It is unclear of analyst estimates are comparable to actual company results.