CGNX vs. MKSI, COHR, BMI, ST, ITRI, OSIS, DAKT, MLAB, VPG, and FARO
Should you be buying Cognex stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Cognex include MKS Instruments (MKSI), Coherent (COHR), Badger Meter (BMI), Sensata Technologies (ST), Itron (ITRI), OSI Systems (OSIS), Daktronics (DAKT), Mesa Laboratories (MLAB), 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 stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, community ranking, valuation, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, risk, earnings and profitability.
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 company insiders. Comparatively, 1.1% of Cognex shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
MKS Instruments presently has a consensus target price of $147.86, suggesting a potential upside of 18.69%. Cognex has a consensus target price of $50.14, suggesting a potential upside of 0.93%. Given Cognex's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe MKS Instruments is more favorable than Cognex.
MKS Instruments received 22 more outperform votes than Cognex when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.79% of users gave MKS Instruments an outperform vote while only 60.59% of users gave Cognex an outperform vote.
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 1.42, suggesting that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500.
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 0.6%. 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. MKS Instruments is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
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.
In the previous week, Cognex had 11 more articles in the media than MKS Instruments. MarketBeat recorded 19 mentions for Cognex and 8 mentions for MKS Instruments. Cognex's average media sentiment score of 0.80 beat MKS Instruments' score of 0.58 indicating that MKS Instruments is being referred to more favorably in the media.
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.
Summary
MKS Instruments beats Cognex on 11 of the 21 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.
Skip ChartThis 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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