Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDNS) Stock's Been Sliding But Fundamentals Look Decent: Will The Market Correct The Share Price In The Future?

editorial-team@simplywallst.com (Simply Wall St)

Tue, Apr 22, 2025, 6:00 AM 4 min read

It is hard to get excited after looking at Cadence Design Systems' (NASDAQ:CDNS) recent performance, when its stock has declined 19% over the past three months. However, stock prices are usually driven by a company’s financials over the long term, which in this case look pretty respectable. Specifically, we decided to study Cadence Design Systems' ROE in this article.

Return on equity or ROE is a key measure used to assess how efficiently a company's management is utilizing the company's capital. Simply put, it is used to assess the profitability of a company in relation to its equity capital.

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How Do You Calculate Return On Equity?

Return on equity can be calculated by using the formula:

Return on Equity = Net Profit (from continuing operations) ÷ Shareholders' Equity

So, based on the above formula, the ROE for Cadence Design Systems is:

23% = US$1.1b ÷ US$4.7b (Based on the trailing twelve months to December 2024).

The 'return' is the income the business earned over the last year. One way to conceptualize this is that for each $1 of shareholders' capital it has, the company made $0.23 in profit.

View our latest analysis for Cadence Design Systems

What Has ROE Got To Do With Earnings Growth?

So far, we've learned that ROE is a measure of a company's profitability. Depending on how much of these profits the company reinvests or "retains", and how effectively it does so, we are then able to assess a company’s earnings growth potential. Generally speaking, other things being equal, firms with a high return on equity and profit retention, have a higher growth rate than firms that don’t share these attributes.

Cadence Design Systems' Earnings Growth And 23% ROE

To begin with, Cadence Design Systems seems to have a respectable ROE. On comparing with the average industry ROE of 14% the company's ROE looks pretty remarkable. Yet, Cadence Design Systems has posted measly growth of 4.1% over the past five years. This is generally not the case as when a company has a high rate of return it should usually also have a high earnings growth rate. We reckon that a low growth, when returns are quite high could be the result of certain circumstances like low earnings retention or poor allocation of capital.

We then compared Cadence Design Systems' net income growth with the industry and found that the company's growth figure is lower than the average industry growth rate of 20% in the same 5-year period, which is a bit concerning.

past-earnings-growth — NasdaqGS:CDNS Past Earnings Growth April 22nd 2025

The basis for attaching value to a company is, to a great extent, tied to its earnings growth. The investor should try to establish if the expected growth or decline in earnings, whichever the case may be, is priced in. Doing so will help them establish if the stock's future looks promising or ominous. If you're wondering about Cadence Design Systems''s valuation, check out this gauge of its price-to-earnings ratio, as compared to its industry.

Is Cadence Design Systems Efficiently Re-investing Its Profits?

Cadence Design Systems doesn't pay any regular dividends currently which essentially means that it has been reinvesting all of its profits into the business. However, there's only been very little earnings growth to show for it. So there might be other factors at play here which could potentially be hampering growth. For example, the business has faced some headwinds.

Conclusion

In total, it does look like Cadence Design Systems has some positive aspects to its business. Although, we are disappointed to see a lack of growth in earnings even in spite of a high ROE and and a high reinvestment rate. We believe that there might be some outside factors that could be having a negative impact on the business. Having said that, looking at the current analyst estimates, we found that the company's earnings are expected to gain momentum. To know more about the company's future earnings growth forecasts take a look at this free report on analyst forecasts for the company to find out more.

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This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.