Cadence Design Systems, Inc. · CDNS · FY2025 Q1 · Calendar Q2 2025

Cadence: AI demand supports a higher outlook, with execution risks

The quarter supports a constructive view of Cadence's growth trajectory: management linked demand to AI, hyperscalers, advanced-node IP, chiplets and 3D-IC design, while raising its outlook. The evidence is positive, but the thesis remains conditional on execution, hardware capacity, China demand and sustained AI-related design activity.

Reported After market closeNASDAQTechnology $98.07B market cap
80quality score

Earnings scorecard

Reported versus consensus
Reported EPS — Consensus $1.49
EPS surprise — Reported versus consensus
Reported revenue — Consensus $1.24B
Revenue surprise — Reported versus consensus

Market reaction

event-close to next-session close
Stock move +5.8% Event window
SPY move +0.6% Same window
Abnormal move +5.1% Stock minus SPY
Volume 1.6× Versus trailing sessions
Subsequent drift -4.5% Up to 20 sessions
CDNSSPY benchmark

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Transcript intelligence

What changed

Compared with the prior-quarter analysis, the main change was an upward outlook and a broader emphasis on agentic AI, digital twins and the planned Artisan IP acquisition. Management also highlighted expanded ecosystem relationships and continued strong adoption of AI-related tools and IP.

Guidance delta

Management raised its 2025 revenue and EPS outlook after a strong quarter.

Key takeaways

  • Management described strong demand for AI-driven design tools, advanced-node IP, chiplets and 3D-IC architectures.
  • The quarter's growth led management to raise its full-year outlook.
  • Expanded NVIDIA, Rapidus and Intel relationships strengthen the product and ecosystem strategy.
  • Recurring revenue and supply-chain diversification were presented as resilience factors.
  • China exposure, hardware capacity and acquisition integration remain important watch items.

Management priorities

  • Expand agentic AI across verification, implementation and packaging workflows.
  • Integrate the Artisan foundation IP business into Cadence's portfolio.
  • Deepen NVIDIA and other ecosystem partnerships around AI and digital-twin offerings.
  • Advance 3D-IC, chiplet and data-center digital-twin products.

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Earnings History

Estimate Beat Miss Match
CDNS EPS earnings history estimate and actual scatter chart 9 reported fiscal quarters and 4 future estimate-only quarters. Q4 '23 estimate $1.33 Q4 '23 actual $1.38, beat Q1 '24 estimate $1.13 Q1 '24 actual $1.17, beat Q2 '24 estimate $1.23 Q2 '24 actual $1.28, beat Q3 '24 estimate $1.46 Q3 '24 actual $1.64, beat Q2 '25 estimate $1.56 Q2 '25 actual $1.65, beat Q3 '25 estimate $1.79 Q3 '25 actual $1.93, beat Q4 '25 estimate $1.91 Q4 '25 actual $1.99, beat Q1 '26 estimate $1.91 Q1 '26 actual $1.96, beat Q2 '26 estimate $2.05 Q2 '26 actual $2.11, beat Q3 '26 estimate $2.04 Q4 '26 estimate $2.02 Q1 '27 estimate $2.16 Q2 '27 estimate $2.35
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Analyst Consensus ?

ConsensusBuy30 ratings
Bullish2583.3%
Neutral413.3%
Bearish13.4%

Analyst 52W Price Targets

$356.12Previous close
$165Low
$344.13Average
$450High

Latest persisted target per named analyst; persisted previous close from FN2's market snapshot as of Oct 8, 2026. Not an FN2 forecast.

Firm-level rating actions

FMP grade actions identify the grading firm, not a named analyst.

FirmRatingPrior ratingActionDate
Rosenblatt Buy BuyMaintainJul 28, 2026
Piper Sandler Neutral NeutralMaintainJul 28, 2026
Needham Buy BuyMaintainJul 28, 2026
Citigroup Buy BuyMaintainJul 28, 2026
Baird Outperform OutperformMaintainJul 28, 2026
Show 25 more rating actions

Named analyst price targets

Upside is calculated against the persisted previous close $356.12. FMP does not supply a rating on these named-analyst rows.

FirmAnalyst52W targetPrice when postedUpsideDate
Deutsche BankAnalyst unavailable$420$356.34 +17.9%Oct 7, 2026
FBN SecuritiesAnalyst unavailable$375$284.95 +5.3%Sep 11, 2026
Morgan StanleyAnalyst unavailable$400$344.72 +12.3%Jul 29, 2026
OppenheimerAnalyst unavailable$300$338.61 -15.8%Jul 28, 2026
Piper SandlerClarke Jeffries$349$338.61 -2.0%Jul 28, 2026
See 44 more

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Company context

Snapshot as of publication

Cadence Design Systems, Inc. operates globally, delivering a comprehensive suite of solutions that includes software, specialized hardware, professional services, and pre-designed integrated circuit (IC) building blocks. The company's robust functional verification offerings feature dedicated emulation and prototyping hardware. This portfolio encompasses JasperGold for formal verification, Xcelium for parallel logic simulation, Palladium as an enterprise-grade emulation platform, and Protium, a prototyping platform designed for thorough chip verification. Cadence additionally provides extensive products for digital IC design and final sign-off. These include the Genus logic synthesis solution, Joules for RTL power analysis, and the Modus software solution, which streamlines design-for-test (DFT) processes for systems-on-chip.…

Historical context

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Sources

  1. Earnings call transcript and parsed analysis · 2026-05-11T10:29:34.698584+00:00
  2. FN2 earnings calendar · 2025-04-14T00:04:42.211827+00:00
  3. Polygon adjusted daily market bars · 2026-10-08T06:40:46.131379+00:00
  4. Financial Modeling Prep analyst price-target consensus and quote snapshot · 2026-10-08T06:40:46.128620+00:00

Methodology

Reported and consensus figures come from FN2's earnings event records. Market reaction and volume are calculated from daily adjusted bars around the event; abnormal move subtracts the SPY move over the same window.

Analyst target low, average, and high values are derived at request time from each named analyst's latest persisted FMP target. The current-price marker comes from FN2's persisted market snapshot. They are sell-side estimates, not an FN2 valuation or recommendation.

Transcript intelligence is a structured synthesis of the current and prior earnings-call analyses. Missing values stay missing and are never estimated.

By FN2 Research · Updated · As of 2026-10-08. For educational purposes only; not investment advice.