Is the business good?
How good a business is CDNS?
Cadence Design Systems earns 22% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
22%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 13 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 28%
Operating margin · Software - Application median 8.2% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.22×
Cash conversion · 1.27× a year ago · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Share count, year on year
- +0.03%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 24% |
| FY2021 | 26% |
| FY2022 | 30% |
| FY2023 | 31% |
| FY2024 | 29% |
| FY2025 | 28% |
Details›
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 28%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 21%
- Free cash flow margin
- 26%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $5.53B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $1.43B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $1.17B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 22%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Software - Application
Ranks #50 of 90 by Smart Score