CLS vs DELL Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
Celestica provides diversified manufacturing exposure to AI infrastructure buildouts, while Dell offers branded enterprise hardware exposure, including a growing AI server business alongside its traditional PC and storage lines.
Investors weighing Celestica against Dell are choosing between a contract manufacturer benefiting from AI-related hardware demand and a branded technology vendor with a more diversified but also more cyclical hardware portfolio.
CLS holds the edge across 3 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. DELL has delivered stronger 1-year price return (+208.00% vs +16.78%), though CLS has the better forward P/E setup (14.42x vs 17.51x for DELL). On fundamentals, DELL is growing revenue faster (87.50%), while CLS maintains the higher operating margin (9.82%) — a classic growth-versus-profitability split. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for CLS (+69.29%) than for DELL (+20.46%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- Want diversified exposure to AI and data center hardware demand
- Prefer a manufacturing-focused business model over a branded hardware vendor
- Are comfortable with contract manufacturing margin profiles
- See potential in continued mix shift toward higher-value technology programs
- Want branded enterprise hardware exposure alongside AI server growth
- Value an established, diversified customer base across enterprise and consumer markets
- Are comfortable with cyclicality in the PC and storage businesses
- Believe in continued growth of enterprise AI server backlog and deployments
| Metric | CLS | DELL |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 77.0 | 91.0 |
| AI ranki | #14 | #4 |
| Latest closei | $315.25 | $473.39 |
| 1M returni | -0.49% | -12.90% |
| 3M returni | +3.75% | +20.95% |
| 6M returni | -17.54% | +145.17% |
| 1Y returni | +16.78% | +208.00% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | CLS | DELL |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $11.68K (+16.8%) started 2025-10-15 | $31.29K (+212.9%) started 2025-10-16 |
| 5Y ago | $338.25K (+3282.5%) started 2021-10-15 | $100.98K (+909.8%) started 2021-10-18 |
| 10Y ago | $301.67K (+2916.7%) started 2016-10-17 | $418.1K (+4081.0%) started 2016-10-17 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | CLS | DELL |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $35.55B | $298.3B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 29.27 | 36.82 |
| Forward P/Ei | 14.42 | 17.51 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | N/A |
| EV/Revenuei | 2.19 | 2.21 |
| Analyst targeti | $477.22 | $556.13 |
| Target upsidei | +69.29% | +20.46% |
| Metric | CLS | DELL |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 62.40% | 87.50% |
| Earnings growthi | 74.20% | 282.50% |
| EPS growthi | +74.20% | +282.50% |
| FCF margini | +4.68% | +4.06% |
| Operating margini | 9.82% | 8.86% |
| Profit margini | 7.16% | 6.28% |
| ROIC proxyi | 52.69% | N/A |
| Return on equityi | 52.69% | N/A |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | 0.55% |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 13.43% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | No increase yet |
| Betai | 1.52 | 1.40 |
| Debt/equityi | 39.57 | N/A |
| Current ratioi | 1.23 | 0.95 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.63 | 0.61 |
Over the past year, CLS and DELL have moved weakly in the same direction (correlation of 0.37), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | CLS | DELL |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | +16.78% | +212.86% |
| CAGRi | +16.79% | +213.48% | |
| Volatilityi | 77.00% | 75.47% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.53 | 1.82 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.74 | 3.41 | |
| Max drawdowni | 41.20% | 32.64% | |
| Current drawdowni | 33.27% | 19.55% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 17.51% | 11.52% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 20.46% | 15.04% | |
| Max daily dropi | 14.37% | 11.27% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 22.90% | 19.22% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | +3282.51% | +830.60% |
| CAGRi | +102.25% | +56.30% | |
| Volatilityi | 59.64% | 54.29% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 1.41 | 1.01 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 2.11 | 1.65 | |
| Max drawdowni | 53.96% | 59.59% | |
| Current drawdowni | 33.27% | 19.55% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 11.86% | 20.12% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 16.19% | 24.61% | |
| Max daily dropi | 28.21% | 18.99% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 24.33% | 23.19% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +2916.75% | +3753.22% |
| CAGRi | +40.62% | +44.09% | |
| Volatilityi | 51.68% | 45.70% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.84 | 0.93 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 1.21 | 1.44 | |
| Max drawdowni | 80.60% | 59.59% | |
| Current drawdowni | 33.27% | 19.55% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 24.80% | 15.40% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 30.72% | 20.87% | |
| Max daily dropi | 28.21% | 21.64% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 44.18% | 23.70% |
| Category | CLS | DELL |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Celestica Inc. | Dell Technologies Inc. |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Electronic Components | Computer Hardware |
| Core business | Celestica provides electronics manufacturing, design, and supply chain services, with a growing segment serving hyperscale data center and networking customers building AI infrastructure. | Dell designs and sells servers, storage, PCs, and infrastructure solutions, with a growing AI server business serving enterprise and cloud customers. |
| Investor focus | Watch growth in the Advanced Technology Solutions segment, hyperscaler customer concentration, and margin trends. | Watch AI-optimized server order growth, backlog trends, and margin pressure from server mix and component costs. |
- Growing exposure to hyperscale data center and AI-related hardware demand
- Diversified manufacturing base across communications and enterprise end markets
- Track record of improving margins through mix shift toward higher-value programs
- Established enterprise relationships across servers, storage, and PCs
- Growing backlog of AI-optimized server orders from enterprise and cloud customers
- Broad go-to-market and supply chain scale relative to smaller hardware vendors
- Customer concentration risk with a small number of large hyperscale clients
- Contract manufacturing margins remain thinner than branded technology vendors
- Demand cyclicality tied to capital spending plans of large technology customers
- AI server margins can be thinner than legacy enterprise hardware margins
- PC segment remains exposed to cyclical consumer and commercial demand
- Competitive intensity from other server and infrastructure vendors
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