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what it is
CDW helps businesses, schools, hospitals, and governments buy and manage the tech they need to keep working.
how it gets paid
Last year Cdw made $22.4B in revenue. hardware devices was the main engine at $9.0B, or 40% of sales.
why it's growing
Revenue grew 6.8% last year. Yahoo consensus says the company reported $2.57 versus a $2.45 estimate.
what just happened
CDW's latest report beat estimates, but the bigger story is the source mismatch: consensus shows a $2.57 EPS beat, while EDGAR lists far larger quarterly figures.
At a glance
B++ balance sheet — above average — nothing keeping you up at night
95/100 earnings predictability — you can trust these numbers
16.0x trailing p/e — the market's not buying it — or you found a deal
1.9% dividend yield — cash in your pocket every quarter
28.5% return on capital — every dollar works hard here
xvary composite: 63/100 — average
What they do
CDW helps businesses, schools, hospitals, and governments buy and manage the tech they need to keep working.
CDW wins because your IT team would rather call one provider than manage 40 vendors, 12 contracts, and one outage at 2 a.m. It serves more than 250,000 customers with about 15,100 employees, and that scale shows up in a 28.5% return on capital (how much profit each dollar invested produces → very high efficiency → CDW can keep taking share without needing heroic growth).
How they make money
$22.4B
annual revenue · their business grew +6.8% last year
hardware devices
$9.0B
software licenses
$4.9B
cloud and virtualization
$3.4B
security and data center
$2.7B
collaboration and mobility
$1.4B
services and other
$1.0B
The products that matter
hardware, software, and IT solutions sales
IT solutions distribution
$22.4B revenue · +6.8% growth
this is effectively the whole story in the data we have: a $22.4B business that grew 6.8% last year and converts that scale into a 5.3% net margin.
5.3% margin
Key numbers
28.5%
return on capital
Return on capital → profit earned on the money used in the business → so what: CDW is extracting a lot from a low-margin model.
16.0x
trailing p/e
P/E → price divided by last year's earnings → so what: you are not paying a wild multiple for a business with 95 earnings predictability.
$5.6B
long-term debt
Debt → borrowed money that must be serviced → so what: it boosts returns when business is fine and reduces flexibility when spending slows.
95
predictability score
Earnings predictability → how steady profits have been over time → so what: CDW is more spreadsheet than drama.
Financial health
B++
strength
- balance sheet grade B++ — above average financial health
- risk rank 3 — safer than 50% of stocks
- price stability 75 / 100
- long-term debt $5.6B (25% of capital)
- net profit margin 5.5% — keeps 6 cents of every dollar in revenue
- return on equity 56% — $0.56 profit for every $1 investors have put in
B++ — functional but not a standout on the balance sheet.
Total return vs. market
You invested $10,000 in CDW 3 years ago → it's now worth $7,030.
The index would have given you $14,770.
source: institutional data · total return
What just happened
beat estimates
CDW's latest report beat estimates, but the bigger story is the source mismatch: consensus shows a $2.57 EPS beat, while EDGAR lists far larger quarterly figures.
Yahoo consensus says the company reported $2.57 versus a $2.45 estimate, a 4.9% beat. EDGAR separately lists latest-quarter revenue of $16.9B and EPS of $5.94 with a 21.4% gross margin, so you should anchor on the annual trend and treat quarter-to-quarter framing carefully.
$16.9B
revenue
$5.94
eps
21.4%
gross margin
the number that mattered
The useful number is the 4.9% earnings beat versus consensus, because it says operations still cleared the bar even while cut the stock's outlook rank.
-
cdw corporation’s stock price continued to slide over the past three months.
-
shares of the diversified it solutions provider are down roughly 15% in value since our late october review, and have been on a steady downtrend since reaching a pinnacle in early 2024.lackluster investor sentiment can probably be attributed to softer financial performances over the past few years. to this point, quarterly comparisons, particularly on the top line, have not been challenging this year due to weak showings in 2024.
-
meanwhile, bottom-line results have been a mixed bag.
-
on balance, the stock has been downgraded one notch for timeliness, and is now slated to mirror the broader market averages over the coming six to 12 months.
-
we are lowering our full-year 2025 estimates.cdw posted weaker-than-anticipated third-quarter financial results, largely due to a mix of macroeconomic uncertainty and pressured client IT spending. consequently, we now think cdw ended the year with sales of $22.3 billion (down from our previous call of $22.7 billion) and earnings of $8.25 per share (down from $8.50).
source: EDGAR and Yahoo Finance consensus, 2026
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What could go wrong
the #1 risk is margin compression in a 5.3% net margin business.
high
pricing pressure
CDW does $22.4B in revenue but keeps only 5.3 cents of each dollar after costs. that leaves very little cushion if vendors or customers squeeze pricing.
even small margin pressure can hit profit faster than sales
med
slower IT spending
this is an enterprise tech-spend story. revenue grew 6.8% last year, and the next quarter is only set up for 4% growth. if customer budgets pause, the model feels it quickly.
slower volume matters more when your margin is already thin
med
balance sheet is fine, not bulletproof
B++ balance sheet grade is respectable, but CDW still carries $5.6B in long-term debt, equal to 25% of capital. that limits how forgiving the setup is if demand softens.
less flexibility than the cleanest balance sheets in tech
low
sentiment is already weak
institutions have been net sellers for three straight quarters, with 363 buyers versus 428 sellers in 3q2025. the stock does not have much benefit of the doubt right now.
good results may need to be better than merely good to change the tape
combine a 5.3% net margin with $5.6B of debt and three quarters of net institutional selling, and you get a stock that needs clean execution fast.
source: institutional data · regulatory filings · risk analysis
Pay attention to
metric
watch EPS versus revenue
the next setup has revenue up 4% but EPS down 6%. if that gap persists, margin pressure is the story.
trend
track institutional flow
three straight quarters of net selling matters. if that trend flips, sentiment may be changing before the chart says so.
calendar
next earnings need to clear a low bar
with the stock down and comparisons easier than last year, merely meeting $5.7B revenue and $2.50 EPS may not impress anyone.
risk
keep an eye on debt tolerance
$5.6B in long-term debt is manageable with a B++ balance sheet. it gets less comfortable if growth slows and margins stay thin.
Analyst rankings
short-term outlook
average
momentum score 3. in human-speak: analysts do not see a strong short-term edge here.
risk profile
average
stability score 3 — middle-of-the-road risk. not especially defensive, not especially fragile.
chart momentum
top 20%
technical score 2 — the ranking says above-average performance potential, even though the business backdrop still needs work.
earnings predictability
95 / 100
the numbers are usually dependable. that helps, but dependable is not the same thing as accelerating.
source: institutional data
Institutional activity
institutions have been net selling for 3 consecutive quarters — 363 buyers vs. 428 sellers in 3q2025. total institutional holdings: 0.1B shares. net selling for 3 quarters.
source: institutional data
Price targets
3-5 year target range
$110
$232
$132
current price
$171
target midpoint · +30% from current · 3-5yr high: $310 (+135% · 25% ann'l return)
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