Cadence Design Systems price to free cash flow CDNS

Market value divided by free cash flow over the last twelve months, since 2011.

Today, Oct 23, 2026: 51.9×
10-year median: 43.3×
Against its 10-year history: 64th; percentile: 0 is its lowest day, 100 its highest
10-year range: 21.0× to 92.3×
Peer median: 20.8×

Cadence Design Systems' price to free cash flow is 51.9× as of Oct 23, 2026.

That is above its ten-year median of 43.3×, close to the middle of its last ten years.

Over that time it ranged from 21.0× in Aug 2017 to 92.3× in Jan 2025.

The median for 10 application software stocks of a similar size is 20.8×.

Price to free cash flow over time

median 43.3×

The dashed line is the 10-year median and the shaded band the middle half of its days.

Open the interactive chart, with overlays and comparisons

Year by year

Year	End of year	Low	High
2026 so far	51.9×	45.6×	74.7×
2025	58.7×	55.3×	92.3×
2024	87.9×	55.7×	89.8×
2023	60.0×	40.1×	63.6×
2022	40.3×	33.8×	49.0×
2021	55.0×	42.6×	55.5×
2020	45.4×	23.6×	45.4×
2019	31.1×	22.6×	37.1×
2018	22.7×	21.3×	27.2×
2017	24.1×	21.0×	26.6×
2016	22.8×	16.6×	24.1×
2015	18.1×	16.9×	20.7×
2014	21.2×	13.0×	21.2×
2013	13.4×	12.2×	16.5×
2012	15.5×	12.8×	18.2×
2011	13.4×	10.8×	16.4×

Against its peers

Companies in Software - Application nearest Cadence Design Systems' size, closest first, today.

Company	Price to free cash flow
CDNSCadence Design Systems	51.9×
APPAppLovin	n/m
INTUIntuit	10.6×
DDOGDatadog	81.9×
ADBEAdobe	9.7×
SNOWSnowflake	96.1×
ADPAutomatic Data Processing	23.0×
TEAMAtlassian	43.7×
MSTRStrategy	n/m
UBERUber Technologies	13.5×
ADSKAutodesk	18.6×
Peer median	20.8×

What the price to free cash flow tells you

Market value divided by free cash flow: the cash left after running the business and paying for equipment. Cash is harder to manage than accounting earnings, so many investors trust this more than PE.

Lumpy: a big year of building factories drops cash flow and inflates the ratio without the business getting worse.

More on Cadence Design Systems

Valuation data, not investment advice. Prices as of Oct 23, 2026. Reported figures come from the company's filings with the SEC.