CDNS
CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS INCEvidence as of 2026-09-30The desk's Snapshot
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Overview · CADENCE DESIGN SYSTEMS INC
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. provides software, hardware, services, and reusable integrated circuit (IC) design blocks worldwide. The company offers functional verification services, including emulation and prototyping hardware. Its functional verification offering consists of JasperGold, a formal verification platform; Xcelium, a parallel logic simulation platform; Palladium, an enterprise emulation platform; and Pr…
Management team
- Ms. Christina Rooke Jones · Senior Vice President of Global Human ResourcesFind on LinkedIn
- Ms. Karna Nisewaner · Corporate VP, General Counsel & SecretaryFind on LinkedIn
- Mr. Richard Gu · Vice President of Investor RelationsFind on LinkedIn
- Mr. James Haddad · Corporate VP of Corporate Finance & TreasurerFind on LinkedIn
Start free to see the full management team.
Links open LinkedIn searches, not verified profiles. Team data from our market-data vendor's company profile.
Moneyta sentiment
Where the published evidence leans after the desk debated it, not a rating or a recommendation.
−0.7 on a −2 to +2 scale.
What builds the score
Solid bars are analyst rubric scores; faded bars are computed directly from data. Claims dropped in debate count for nothing; weakened claims count at half weight.
Editor's note
Written after the debate settled. The rest of the page is the evidence behind it.
The evidence balance is Cautious (‑0.7 of a possible +2; confidence high). Revenue from contracts rose from $ 1,242,366,000 in fiscal Q1 2025 (fiscal quarter ended 2025-03-31) to $ 1,275,441,000 in fiscal Q2 2025 (fiscal quarter ended 2025-06-30), then to $ 1,338,838,000 in Q3 2025 (fiscal quarter ended 2025-09-30) and reached $ 1,474,225,000 in Q1 2026 (fiscal quarter ended 2026-03-31). Operating income moved from $ 361,520,000 in Q1 2025 to $ 241,797,000 in Q2 2025, then to $ 425,390,000 in Q3 2025 and $ 431,329,000 in Q1 2026, producing operating margins of roughly 29.1% → 19.0% → 31.8% → 29.3% (compression in Q2 2025 and recovery thereafter).
Point-in-time cash and cash equivalents declined to $ 1,406,668,000 as of 2026-03-31 (this claim was reviewed and marked weakened but survived). Reported repurchases were $ 350,007,000 in fiscal Q1 2025 and $ 200,000,000 in fiscal Q1 2026, and shares outstanding moved from 274,108,000 (2025-01-31) to 275,816,000 (2026-03-31) with weighted‑average diluted shares roughly stable at 273,631,000 (Q1 2025) and 273,725,000 (Q1 2026). Market and valuation signals in the packet show elevated volatility (90‑day vol ~ 43.9%), beta vs SPY of 1.59, and stretched multiples (P/FCF 73.02, P/E 83.76, EV/EBITDA 52.65), while institutional 13F holdings total $ 92.99B with top holders like BlackRock at $ 10.02B.
How this note was made
every stage ran before the note was writtenAnalyst desk
Mercer, Oakes, Nash, Ellis, Yates, Talbot and Archer. The desk: named AI agents, not people. Each reads one slice of the evidence and nothing else (no outside knowledge, no browsing), so every finding traces to a source you can open.
Reads the XBRL figures companies file with the SEC (revenue, margins, income, debt and share count, quarter by quarter) and reports which way the trend is running.
Revenue from contracts rose from $1,242,366,000 in fiscal Q1 2025 (2025-01-01 to 2025-03-31) to $1,275,441,000 in fiscal Q2 2025 (2025-04-01 to 2025-06-30), then to $1,338,838,000 in fiscal Q3 2025 (2025-07-01 to 2025-09-30), and reached $1,474,225,000 in fiscal Q1 2026 (2026-01-01 to 2026-03-31).
XBRL companyfacts · 0000813672-25-000051Operating income was $361,520,000 in fiscal Q1 2025, fell to $241,797,000 in fiscal Q2 2025, rose to $425,390,000 in fiscal Q3 2025, and was $431,329,000 in fiscal Q1 2026 (three‑month periods as reported).
XBRL companyfacts · 0000813672-25-000051Reads the filings themselves, above all the year-over-year diff of Item 1A risk factors: which risks a company added, dropped or quietly reworded since its last annual report.
Which filings the desk reads
The desk reads the annual 10-K in full: its risk factors, and how they changed since last year. Quarterly 10-Qs and event filings (8-Ks, insider Form 4s) are listed for context but not read line by line: the 10-K is where the material risk disclosures live. A brand-new company, or one we have only just begun tracking, may have no annual report on file yet; its risk analysis fills in once that lands.
The 10-K filed 19 February 2026 discloses added risk language that the company is subject to governmental export and import controls that can subject it to liability and impair its ability to compete in global markets.
Item 1A risk-factor diff · 0000813672-26-000016 vs 0000813672-25-000024The 10-K filed 19 February 2026 states that, as previously disclosed, on May 23, 2025 BIS informed the company that a license was required for export/re-export/in-country transfer of EDA Software and Technology involving parties located in China or Chinese "military end users," that on July 2, 2025 BIS rescinded those license requirements effective immediately, and that the company restored access in accordance with the updated U.S. export guidance.
Item 1A risk-factor diff · 0000813672-26-000016 vs 0000813672-25-000024Reads the signal panel above (momentum, volatility, drawdown, relative strength and beta) and ranks each against the whole research universe rather than judging it in isolation.
Cadence's 6-month price momentum was +19.7% as of 2026-09-29, which ranks in the 66th percentile of the 567-stock research universe.
Moneyta signal set · 2026-09-29weakened in debateShorter-term momentum is mixed: 3-month momentum was -13.6% while the 12-over-1 momentum series was -1.9% as of 2026-09-29, and the 12-1 momentum rank is the 31th percentile of 567.
Moneyta signal set · 2026-09-29weakened in debateReads which funds hold the name and at what weight, plus insider Form 4 filings, to show the exposure you may already carry through index funds.
Institutional 13F-reported holdings total $92.99B as of 2026-06-30, with top reported holders including BlackRock, Inc. ($10.02B), VANGUARD CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC ($6.76B), and STATE STREET CORP ($4.89B).
13F holdings · 1516 filers · as of 2026-06-30As of 2026-09-22T18:58:55.801420+00:00, IVV held a 0.16% weight in the fund's portfolio for CDNS.
ETF constituents · market dataReads recent headlines that are genuinely about this company, ignoring rating chatter and market-wide stories. Findings argue in the debate but never move the sentiment score.
Multiple outlets ran a similar 'Investors Heavily Search Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (CDNS)' headline on 29 September 2026, indicating elevated retail or readership interest in the company.
News · finance.yahoo.com · 2026-09-29Cadence announced a new RTL Generation Agent within its ChipStack AI Super Agent platform on 29 September 2026, described as automating spec-to-RTL workflows and targeting chip area and power efficiency gains.
News · simplywall.st · 2026-09-29Reads parsed Forms 3/4/5: who bought or sold, at what size, and whether a 10b5-1 plan was involved. Flags clustered open-market officer buying; treats plan sales as routine and never counts a fund or 10%-holder as an officer.
TENG CHIN-CHI (Sr. Vice President) reported an open-market sale of 4,732 shares for $1.5M filed on 2026-08-21, and the filing states the trade was made under a 10b5-1 plan.
Form 4 · TENG CHIN-CHI (Sr. Vice President) · $203k code M · 2026-08-21Cunningham Paul (Sr. Vice President) reported an open-market sale of 2,000 shares for $647k filed on 2026-08-17, and the filing states the trade was made under a 10b5-1 plan.
Form 4 · Cunningham Paul (Sr. Vice President) · $138k code M · 2026-08-17Reads the implied-expectations math built from the company's own filings (the growth rate today's price would justify, and the multiples beside it) and argues whether the market's bar looks high or low for this business. Never turns the math into a target.
The calculation shows an implied free cash flow (FCF) growth rate of 0.4409 (44.09%) that today's price would justify under the stated discount and terminal assumptions.
Valuation inputs · SEC XBRL + stored EOD closePrice-to-free-cash-flow (P/FCF) is 73.02 based on the trailing twelve months FCF and the market price.
Valuation inputs · SEC XBRL + stored EOD closeDebate and risk review
A bull and a bear contest the claims and the chair rules on each; the risk review stress-tests what survived.
A bull and a bear argue the analysts' claims across two rounds, then a chair rules on each one. Only what survives feeds the score. The argument is shown, not hidden, so you can judge the reasoning yourself.
Several company-reported fundamentals point to a favorable operational picture: revenue shows sequential growth across the reported quarters and net income and operating income recovered after a Q2 compression, while total stockholders' equity increased materially. Market and ownership signals complement the operational data — institutional 13F holdings are large and recent news items highlight product launches and partner integrations that align with the company’s stated AI and automotive opportunities. Some negative points (cash balance moves, buyback cadence, legal disclosures, and stretched valuation multiples) are visible in the filings and valuation rows, but the company’s restored export access as disclosed, the prominence of 10b5-1-labeled insider sales, and rising equity and operating profitability provide counter-evidence that weakens a purely bear-read of the dataset.
Chair's verdict, claim by claim
Fragility · computed, not argued
balanced0.35
45 surviving claims rest on 20 distinct sources; the heaviest analyst carries 22% of them, and 97% of what the desk raised survived the debate.
The read rests on a moderate number of distinct sources, so individual documents can be checked and corroborated; however, a single analyst accounts for a meaningful share of surviving claims, so analyst-specific framing could influence emphasis. The very high survival rate through internal debate means the desk largely retained its initial claims — that increases apparent robustness but also suggests limited pruning, so treat lower-weighted or single-source points with caution.
Peer context · computed, not argued
12-1 momentum ranks 12th of 22 in Software—Application (as of 2026-09-29).
6-month relative strength ranks 16th of 22 in Software—Application (as of 2026-09-29).
90-day volatility ranks 20th of 22 in Software—Application (as of 2026-09-29).
Disconfirming evidence · base rates · falsifiers
Context
Outside consensus, and where this name already sits in your own portfolio.
Third-party consensus shown for context. It never enters Moneyta sentiment. When the two diverge, the debate above is where the why lives.
What this was built from
Every figure on this page traces to one of these. The desk reads only what is listed here (no outside knowledge, no browsing), and each card shows who read it and what it contributed to the score.
13 filings· 2 cited
SEC XBRL filings
Quarterly figures as filed with the SEC, read straight from EDGAR's structured data, not retyped or estimated.
Read by Mercer+0.4 to the score
12 documents· 2 cited
SEC filing documents
The filings themselves, including the year-over-year comparison of Item 1A risk factors.
Read by Oakes−1.0 to the score
1 signal set
Moneyta signal set
Computed from our own end-of-day price history and ranked against the whole research universe. No AI involved.
Read by Nash−0.3 to the score
3 holdings records· 2 cited
Fund holdings
Which funds hold this name and at what weight, plus insider Form 4 filings.
Read by Ellis+0.2 to the score
8 headlines· 2 cited
News coverage
Recent headlines about this company, rating chatter excluded and nothing published after the report date.
Read by Yatesnothing survived
7 filings· 2 cited
Insider filings
Parsed Forms 3/4/5 from EDGAR: named insiders, share counts, prices, and 10b5-1 plan state, with stated and inferred flags kept apart.
Read by Talbot−1.3 to the score
1 computation
Valuation inputs
TTM cash-flow figures from the company's own XBRL filings, priced with the stored closing price. Implied growth and multiples only; no fair-value dollar figure reaches the desk, by design.
Read by Archercontext only
1 record· 0 cited
Company profile
Sector, industry and company details.
1 record· 0 cited
Analyst consensus
Third-party consensus, shown for context only; it never enters Moneyta sentiment.
Read means we pulled and handed it to an analyst; cited means a claim on this page points at it. Reading twelve quarters to state one trend is normal; the gap is shown rather than hidden.
Written by AI, checked against sources
The analysts, the bull–bear debate and the editor's note are AI agents reading only the evidence listed on this page. They can misread a filing or a headline, which is why every claim cites a source you can open and check yourself. The sentiment score is arithmetic over the claims that survived the debate, not a language model's opinion.
Educational analysis of published data. Moneyta does not give investment advice or make recommendations. Past patterns do not indicate future results.
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Institutional holders
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