Cognex (CGNX) Competitors

Coherent (NYSE:COHR) and Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) are both mid-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk, media sentiment, dividends and community ranking.

Is COHR or CGNX more profitable?

Cognex has a net margin of 11.61% compared to Coherent's net margin of 1.28%. Coherent's return on equity of 8.29% beat Cognex's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Coherent	1.28%	8.29%	3.25%
Cognex	11.61%	5.65%	4.25%

Does the media refer more to COHR or CGNX?

In the previous week, Cognex had 8 more articles in the media than Coherent. MarketBeat recorded 14 mentions for Cognex and 6 mentions for Coherent. Cognex's average media sentiment score of 0.74 beat Coherent's score of 0.29 indicating that Cognex is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Coherent	0 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	5 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Cognex	5 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	1 Neutral mention(s)	6 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do analysts recommend COHR or CGNX?

Coherent presently has a consensus price target of $111.00, indicating a potential upside of 101.20%. Cognex has a consensus price target of $44.17, indicating a potential upside of 84.41%. Given Coherent's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Coherent is more favorable than Cognex.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Coherent	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	12 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	3.00
Cognex	1 Sell rating(s)	6 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.46

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in COHR or CGNX?

Coherent received 44 more outperform votes than Cognex when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 62.80% of users gave Coherent an outperform vote while only 59.93% of users gave Cognex an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Coherent	Outperform Votes 569 62.80%	Underperform Votes 337 37.20%
Cognex	Outperform Votes 525 59.93%	Underperform Votes 351 40.07%

Do insiders & institutionals have more ownership in COHR or CGNX?

83.3% of Coherent shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.1% of Cognex shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.6% of Coherent shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.6% of Cognex shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, COHR or CGNX?

Cognex has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Coherent. Coherent is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cognex, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Coherent	$5.31B	1.61	-$156.15M	-$0.41	-134.56
Cognex	$914.52M	4.44	$106.17M	$0.61	39.26

Which has more volatility and risk, COHR or CGNX?

Coherent has a beta of 1.88, suggesting that its stock price is 88% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cognex has a beta of 1.56, suggesting that its stock price is 56% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Cognex beats Coherent on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.