CGNX vs. MKSI, ST, COHR, BMI, ITRI, OSIS, MLAB, DAKT, VPG, and FARO
Should you be buying Cognex stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Cognex include MKS Instruments (MKSI), Sensata Technologies (ST), Coherent (COHR), Badger Meter (BMI), Itron (ITRI), OSI Systems (OSIS), Mesa Laboratories (MLAB), Daktronics (DAKT), Vishay Precision Group (VPG), and FARO Technologies (FARO).
MKS Instruments (NASDAQ:MKSI) and Cognex (NASDAQ:CGNX) are both mid-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, community ranking, risk and media sentiment.
MKS Instruments pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. Cognex pays an annual dividend of $0.30 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.7%. MKS Instruments pays out -3.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Cognex pays out 51.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Cognex has raised its dividend for 9 consecutive years. MKS Instruments is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
99.8% of MKS Instruments shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 88.1% of Cognex shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of MKS Instruments shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Cognex shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
In the previous week, MKS Instruments had 8 more articles in the media than Cognex. MarketBeat recorded 17 mentions for MKS Instruments and 9 mentions for Cognex. MKS Instruments' average media sentiment score of 1.40 beat Cognex's score of 0.63 indicating that Cognex is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Cognex has lower revenue, but higher earnings than MKS Instruments. MKS Instruments is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Cognex, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
MKS Instruments currently has a consensus price target of $141.25, indicating a potential upside of 10.83%. Cognex has a consensus price target of $49.15, indicating a potential upside of 11.49%. Given MKS Instruments' higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Cognex is more favorable than MKS Instruments.
MKS Instruments has a beta of 1.65, suggesting that its stock price is 65% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Cognex has a beta of 1.45, suggesting that its stock price is 45% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Cognex has a net margin of 11.76% compared to Cognex's net margin of -48.24%. Cognex's return on equity of 13.90% beat MKS Instruments' return on equity.
MKS Instruments received 21 more outperform votes than Cognex when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.77% of users gave MKS Instruments an outperform vote while only 60.57% of users gave Cognex an outperform vote.
Summary
Cognex beats MKS Instruments on 12 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding CGNX and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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