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 (+250.24% vs +63.53%), though CLS has the better forward P/E setup (15.17x vs 19.77x 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 (+59.59%) than for DELL (+15.09%).
- 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 score | 78.7 | 83.7 |
| AI rank | #16 | #7 |
| Latest close | $296.55 | $442.08 |
| 1M return | -11.61% | +0.06% |
| 6M return | +1.79% | +273.07% |
| 1Y return | +63.53% | +250.24% |
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 | $16.35K (+63.5%) started 2025-08-21 | $35.48K (+254.8%) started 2025-08-21 |
| 5Y ago | $332.08K (+3220.8%) started 2021-08-23 | $106K (+960.0%) started 2021-08-23 |
| 10Y ago | $280.56K (+2705.6%) started 2016-08-22 | $439.08K (+4290.8%) started 2016-08-22 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | CLS | DELL |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $37.4B | $285.65B |
| Trailing P/E | 36.34 | 902.20 |
| Forward P/E | 15.17 | 19.77 |
| Price/Sales | 2.40 | 2.13 |
| EV/Revenue | 2.21 | 2.29 |
| Analyst target | $473.26 | $508.78 |
| Target upside | +59.59% | +15.09% |
| Metric | CLS | DELL |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth | 62.40% | 87.50% |
| Earnings growth | 74.20% | 282.50% |
| EPS growth | +74.20% | +282.50% |
| FCF margin | +4.68% | +4.06% |
| Operating margin | 9.82% | 8.86% |
| Profit margin | 7.16% | 6.28% |
| ROIC proxy | 52.69% | N/A |
| Return on equity | 52.69% | N/A |
| Dividend yield | 0.00% | 0.57% |
| Beta | 1.52 | 1.40 |
| Debt/equity | 39.57 | N/A |
| Current ratio | 1.23 | 0.95 |
| Quick ratio | 0.63 | 0.61 |
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 | Growth | +63.53% | +250.24% |
| CAGR | +63.59% | +250.54% | |
| Sharpe ratio | 0.97 | 2.03 | |
| Max drawdown | 37.22% | 32.34% | |
| Max daily drop | 14.37% | 9.80% | |
| Max wkly drop | 22.90% | 16.33% | |
| 5Y | Growth | +3220.83% | +859.01% |
| CAGR | +101.66% | +57.26% | |
| Sharpe ratio | 1.41 | 1.03 | |
| Max drawdown | 53.96% | 59.59% | |
| Max daily drop | 28.21% | 18.99% | |
| Max wkly drop | 24.33% | 23.19% | |
| 10Y | Growth | +2705.58% | +3872.64% |
| CAGR | +39.59% | +44.54% | |
| Sharpe ratio | 0.83 | 0.94 | |
| Max drawdown | 80.60% | 59.59% | |
| Max daily drop | 28.21% | 21.64% | |
| Max wkly drop | 44.18% | 23.70% |
| Category | CLS | DELL |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Celestica Inc. | Dell Technologies Inc. |
| Sector | Electronics Manufacturing Services | Technology Hardware |
| Industry | N/A | N/A |
| 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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