Overall verdict
Neutral
6.2/10
1-year performance
+3.00%
Score breakdown
Up 3.0% over 1 year, 44% of the 52-week range.
Strongest: Financial strength 9.1/10. Weakest: Valuation 1.8/10.
24 analysts, target +0.2% vs the price.
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. develops computational, AI-driven software, hardware, and silicon intellectual property products and solutions. The company offers functional verification services, such as Jasper, a formal verification platform ; Xcelium, a parallel logic simulation platform ; Verisium, a generative AI solution ; Palladium, an enterprise emulation platform ; and Protium, a prototyping platform for chip verification, as well as digital IC design and sign off products, including Innovus platform ;
and custom IC design and simulation product include Virtuoso, a platform to design and verify analog. It also provides Xcelium logic simulator and other front-end verification and virtual prototyping technologies; controllers and physical interfaces; PCI Express, universal accelerator and compute express links, and multiple memory interfaces; and Tensilica, a digital signal processor. In addition, the company's design IP portfolio includes serializer/deserializer, peripheral component interconnect, USB, and other standard protocols; and Secure-IC, a solution for embedded security IP.
Additionally, it provides System Design and Analysis (SD&A) platform, a solution that enables end-to-end system-level design and verification across chips, packages, PCBs, and electronic systems ; Allegro X and Orca X platforms for PCB and advanced packaging ; Sigrity X for signal and power integrity ; AIR for RF design ; Fidelity for computational fluid dynamics ; Celsius for thermal and airflow analysis ;
Clarity 3D solver for electromagnetic and power electronics analysis and simulation ; Integrity 3D-IC solution for 3D-IC and multi-chiplet designs ; the Optimality Intelligent System Explorer, Reality digital twin, and Millennium enterprise multiphasic platforms ; Allegro system design platform ; and molecular modeling and simulation solutions and services. The company has a strategic collaboration with NVIDIA. The company was incorporated in 1987 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.
Sector
Information Technology
Industry
Software
Primary listing
Nasdaq
United States
CEO
Anirudh Devgan
Founded
1987
Employees
13 800
Revenue / employee
383 823 USD
Next earnings
February 8, 2027 (estimated)
Institutional holders
- GEODE CAPITAL MANAGEMENT, LLC2.68%
- FMR LLC1.69%
- Bank of New York Mellon Corp0.57%
- Rest of the register95.06%
3 13F filings as of September 30, 2026: US managers above $100M, filed up to 45 days after quarter end. No insiders, no retail. A share on loan is declared by its lender and by whoever bought it from the short seller, so the total can exceed 100%.
Research uses the underlying stock’s market history. The purchase quote is calculated separately when you review your order.
52-week high
416.69 USD
52-week low
262.75 USD
1-year performance
3.00%
Rising
Year-to-date performance
4.71%
Rising
Drawdown
-20.67%
Marked drawdown
Position in the 52-week range
44% of range
Against the world ETF
Over 26 years, from December 2000 to October 2026, the share did not clearly beat the world ETF once risk is accounted for. It earned much more, but shaking 2.3 times harder: once that risk is counted, it did about as well as the ETF.
$10,000 placed at the end of December 2000 are worth today
| Cadence Design | $119,233 |
| World ETF | $65,117 |
| S&P 500 | $91,204 |
| Risk-free placement | $15,894 |
The risk
- Shaking:the share moves 2.3 times as much as the world ETF.
- Worst fall:-88 % between January 2001 and December 2008. $10,000 placed at the top fell to $1,241. The world ETF, at worst: -53 %. Back to its high in 98 months.
Cadence Design earned more than the world ETF since 2000
Value of $10,000 placed at the end of December 2000, dividends reinvested, in dollars
- Cadence Design: $119,233
- World ETF: $65,117
- S&P 500: $91,204
- Risk-free placement: $15,894
Based on past performance. This is not a recommendation.
Range: 118.59 USD - 127.88 USD (2 methods agree)
The price implies growth of 17.39% per year; the company grows at 13.95%.
Gross margin 84.0%, net margin 22.5%, ROIC 16.5%, ROE 22.9%.
Net margin
22.51%
Exceptional
Sector 5.95%|S&P 13.40%
Gross margin
84.05%
Exceptional
Return on equity (ROE)
22.87%
Exceptional
Sector 5.83%|S&P 17.06%
Return on invested capital (ROIC)
16.52%
Exceptional
Free cash flow margin (FCF)
28.76%
Exceptional
Profit-to-cash conversion (FCF conversion)
1.28x
Fair
Margin stability
8.5 pts
Uneven
Revenue to net income
Growth
3.7/10Revenue up 22.0% over 1 year, 14.6% a year over 5, EPS 13.9% a year over 5.
Revenue (trailing 12 months)
6.1Md USD
Revenue growth (1y)
21.99%
Hyper-growth
Revenue growth (3y)
48.71%
Solid
EPS growth (1y)
0.37%
Moderate
EPS CAGR (5y)
13.95%
Fair
EPS revisions (3 months)
1.21%
Revised up
Valuation
1.8/10P/E 65.7x, forward P/E 68.2x, EV/EBITDA 42.5x, PEG 4.71. The multiple sits in the 80th percentile of its own 5-year history.
P/E (TTM)
65.7x
Expensive
Sector 37.5x|S&P 23.6x
Forward P/E
68.2x
Expensive
EV / EBITDA
42.5x
Very expensive
Sector 17.2x|S&P 15.5x
PEG
4.71
Very expensive
Sector 0.78|S&P 0.91
Fair value (reverse DCF)
124.92 USD
Deeply overvalued
P/E vs its own 5-year history
among the 20% highest valuations
At its historical high
Market cap
90.7Md USD
Financial strength
9.1/10Cash covers 54.9% of the debt, net debt/EBITDA -0.3x.
Net debt / EBITDA
-0.3x
Very solid
Gearing (net debt / equity)
18.43%
Very solid
Cash
1.5Md USD
Cash / market cap
1.70%
Stretched
Cash / total debt
54.94%
Solid
Interest coverage
14.0x
Very solid
Net debt
1.3Md USD
Equity
6.9Md USD
Closed daily candles, 2 years
Last close on November 10, 2026: 331.64 USD
- MM20326.60
- MM50319.61
- MM200327.87
- RSI 1451.8
Top panel: closed candles, 20, 50 and 200-day moving averages, with volume in grey. Bottom panel: 14-day RSI with dashed 30 and 70 levels.
200-day average slope, 1 month
+0.33%
200-day average slope, 3 months
+0.01%
50-day average slope, 1 month
-0.33%
Price structure
higher-low
Bullish RSI divergence
No
20-day volatility
3.04 % per day
Volatility change
+19.16%
Forecasts by fiscal year
| Fiscal year | EPS | Normalised EPS | Revenue | EBITDA | Net income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 4.85 (13) | 8.42 (22) | 6 410 (22) | 3 144 (12) | 1 336 (16) |
| 2027 | 5.97 (13) | 9.85 (25) | 7 334 (24) | 3 687 (12) | 1 650 (16) |
Amounts in millions of USD, EPS in USD per share. In brackets, the number of analysts. Consensus as of November 2, 2026.
Same sub-industry: 318 companies behind the medians.
| # | Company | Code | Country | Overall / 10 | Fundamentals / 10 | Mkt cap | P/E | Net margin | Revenue growth | ROIC | Net debt / EBITDA | FCF yield | 1-year perf. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ADSK | 7.5 | 7.4 | 54.3Md USD | 33.7x | 21.0 % | 16.8 % | 30.0 % | 0.1x | 5.2 % | -13.1 % | ||
| 2 | CRM | 7.5 | 8.0 | 179Md USD | 19.9x | 22.0 % | 10.8 % | 12.7 % | 0.6x | 8.4 % | -9.9 % | ||
| 3 | ADBE | 7.2 | 7.9 | 92.5Md USD | 13.3x | 28.0 % | 12.9 % | 41.4 % | 0.0x | 11.5 % | -27.9 % | ||
| 4 | DDOG | 6.9 | 6.0 | 66.6Md USD | 258.4x | 6.1 % | 35.2 % | 4.9 % | -40.9x | 1.8 % | -7.2 % | ||
| 5 | PLTR | 6.8 | 6.6 | 415Md USD | 120.8x | 50.3 % | 95.9 % | 40.2 % | -4.8x | 1.0 % | -9.4 % | ||
| 6 | SAP | 6.7 | 6.4 | 272Md USD | 30.0x | 20.8 % | 13.2 % | 15.9 % | -0.2x | 3.8 % | -2.6 % | ||
| 7 | INTU | 6.6 | 7.8 | 91.6Md USD | 20.8x | 21.3 % | 13.7 % | 17.4 % | 0.2x | 9.4 % | -47.5 % | ||
| 8 | CDNS | 6.2 | 5.1 | 90.7Md USD | 65.7x | 22.5 % | 22.0 % | 16.5 % | -0.3x | 1.9 % | 3.0 % | ||
| 9 | SNPS | 5.8 | 4.1 | 88.6Md USD | 81.6x | 11.4 % | 42.2 % | 2.6 % | 6.1x | 3.1 % | 16.1 % |
