Analyst Downgrades: Autodesk, Harley-Davidson and Transocean

Analysts are weighing in today on software firm Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK), motorcycle maven Harley-Davidson Inc (NYSE:HOG), and offshore driller Transocean LTD (NYSE:RIG). Here's a quick roundup of today's bearish brokerage notes on ADSK, HOG, and RIG.

• Wedbush lowered its rating on ADSK to "neutral" and its price target to $57. The bearish note comes amid the stock's downtrend -- with the shares losing 15.4% since hitting a late-February all-time high of $65, to trade at $54.97. Option traders have also turned extremely bearish toward Autodesk, Inc. The equity's 10-day put/call volume ratio across the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) is 2.65, with nearly three puts bought to open for every call in recent weeks. This ratio rests just 3 percentage points from a 12-month high, as well. Along similar lines, ADSK's Schaeffer's put/call open interest ratio (SOIR) of 0.94 sits in the 98th annual percentile.


• Wedbush downgraded HOG to "neutral," and reduced its price target to $57. This is understandable, given the stock's 17% year-to-date deficit to rest at $54.69. In fact, Harley-Davidson Inc is potentially facing overhead pressure from its descending 20-day moving average, located at $54.96. Additional bearish notes could come down the pike, too, considering half of the analysts tracking the technical underperformer still consider it a "buy" or better -- with not a single "sell" to be found. What's more, HOG's consensus 12-month price target of $66 stands at a more than 20% premium to Wednesday's close. Ahead of the bell, the shares are down 1.3%.


• Barclays initiated coverage on several energy stocks, including RIG -- which it hit with an "underweight" assessment. Also, the brokerage firm set a price target of $14, which is 26.6% lower than Transocean LTD's current perch at $19.08. On the charts, the shares have shed more than half their value over the past year, and could face overhead resistance in the round-number $20 area -- which roughly corresponds with the equity's descending 40-week moving average. Short sellers foresee additional losses on the horizon, too. Over one-quarter of RIG's float is sold short -- the equivalent of nine days of trading, at typical daily volumes.