Cognex Corporation (CGNX) vs Coherent Corp. (COHR)

Cognex Corporation and Coherent Corp. are both Scientific & Technical Instruments companies. Coherent Corp. is the larger, with a market value of $58.5B against $9.8B — 6.0× the size. Cognex Corporation trades at the lower P/E: 55.9× against 68.0×. Coherent Corp. grew revenue faster over the last twelve months: 22.5% against 17.2%. Cognex Corporation has the higher net margin (16.1% vs 10.8%) and the higher return on invested capital (12.2% vs 4.21%). Both pay a dividend; Cognex Corporation yields more (0.82% vs 0.10%). Across the 22 metrics below, Cognex Corporation leads on 15 and Coherent Corp. on 7.

Valuation

Metric CGNX COHR Scientific & Technical Instruments median
P/E 55.87 68.01 35.93
P/S 9.01 7.37 4.46
P/B 6.02 4.67 3.00
Price to free cash flow 37.11 n/m 24.96
EV/EBITDA 35.29 38.94 19.60
EV/Sales 8.64 7.54 4.98
Earnings yield 1.79% 1.47% 0.53%
Free cash flow yield 2.69% (1.95%) 1.12%

Profitability

Metric CGNX COHR Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Gross margin 68.87% 37.50% 45.75%
Operating margin 21.90% 11.77% 7.34%
Net margin 16.05% 10.82% 1.56%
Free cash flow margin 25.25% (14.38%) 5.84%
Return on equity 11.15% 8.93% 2.87%
Return on assets 8.36% 4.64% 0.99%
Return on invested capital 12.16% 4.21% 3.88%

Growth

Metric CGNX COHR Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Revenue growth (TTM) 17.15% 22.51% 11.28%
EPS growth (last fiscal year) 9.68% 892.31% —
Revenue growth, 5-year CAGR 4.16% 18.04% 7.89%
Net income growth, 5-year CAGR (8.27%) 24.22% 0.00%

Health

Metric CGNX COHR Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Debt to equity 0.00 0.29 0.00
Current ratio 3.93 2.43 2.24
Net debt to EBITDA (1.75) 0.87 0.44

Dividend

Metric CGNX COHR Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Dividend yield 0.82% 0.10% 0.72%
Payout ratio 0.28 0.00 0.00

Size

Metric CGNX COHR Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Market cap 9.82b 58.46b 483.67m

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