Futures
Access hundreds of perpetual contracts
TradFi
Gold
One platform for global traditional assets
Options
Hot
Trade European-style vanilla options
Unified Account
Maximize your capital efficiency
Demo Trading
Introduction to Futures Trading
Learn the basics of futures trading
Futures Events
Join events to earn rewards
Demo Trading
Use virtual funds to practice risk-free trading
Launch
CandyDrop
Collect candies to earn airdrops
Launchpool
Quick staking, earn potential new tokens
HODLer Airdrop
Hold GT and get massive airdrops for free
Pre-IPOs
Unlock full access to global stock IPOs
Alpha Points
Trade on-chain assets and earn airdrops
Futures Points
Earn futures points and claim airdrop rewards
Promotions
AI
Gate AI
Your all-in-one conversational AI partner
Gate AI Bot
Use Gate AI directly in your social App
GateClaw
Gate Blue Lobster, ready to go
Gate for AI Agent
AI infrastructure, Gate MCP, Skills, and CLI
Gate Skills Hub
10K+ Skills
From office tasks to trading, the all-in-one skill hub makes AI even more useful.
GateRouter
Smartly choose from 30+ AI models, with 0% extra fees
Rosenblatt upgrades Cadence on AI-driven demand, strong backlog after Q4 beat
Rosenblatt upgrades Cadence on AI-driven demand, strong backlog after Q4 beat
Pratyush Thakur
Wed, February 18, 2026 at 11:48 PM GMT+9 2 min read
In this article:
CDNS
+7.31%
Investing.com – Rosenblatt upgraded Cadence Design Systems to Buy from Neutral after the chip design software firm reported fourth-quarter results ahead of expectations and pointed to steady demand tied to AI and advanced chip development. Shares rose more than 5% in premarket trading Wednesday
The brokerage said revenue growth, rising backlog and continued uptake of AI-related tools supported the upgrade, along with a pullback in the stock since September that it sees as an entry point.
Rosenblatt raised its price target to $360 from $335 and increased its forecasts for 2026 and 2027.
Cadence reported non-GAAP earnings of $1.99 per share for the quarter, topping estimates of $1.91. Revenue rose to $1.44 billion from $1.356 billion a year earlier and came in ahead of the $1.42 billion consensus.
Rosenblatt said fourth-quarter revenue grew about 6.2% year on year on a tough comparison, supported by demand across lower-node chip designs, AI-related projects, systems customers and intellectual property. Backlog rose about 11% sequentially to $7.8 billion and was up 14.7% from a year earlier, giving visibility into roughly 67% of 2026 revenue, the note said. China contributed 13% of quarterly revenue.
The brokerage added that Cadence’s initial 2026 outlook is typically conservative and does not yet include the pending roughly $3.2 billion simulation acquisition from Hexagon, which is expected to close in the coming weeks.
For 2026, Cadence forecast first-quarter earnings of $1.89 to $1.95 per share, above expectations of $1.81. It sees full-year earnings of $8.05 to $8.15 per share on revenue of $5.9 billion to $6 billion, broadly in line with estimates.
Other analysts were also positive. Wolfe Research called it Cadence’s “largest quarterly beat, with record backlog and an FY26 outlook ahead of expectations,” while Bank of America reiterated its Buy rating, citing a “strong demand outlook protected against AI disruption,” though it trimmed its price target to $375 from $400.
Related articles
Rosenblatt upgrades Cadence on AI-driven demand, strong backlog after Q4 beat
Nvidia’s new Alpamayo project: What it means for Tesla?
5 reasons why Jefferies thinks Meta’s pullback is a buying opportunity
Terms and Privacy Policy
Privacy Dashboard
More Info