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 $49.4B against $9.4B — 5.3× the size. Cognex Corporation trades at the lower P/E: 51.5× against 53.5×. 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%). Across the 21 metrics below, Cognex Corporation leads on 13 and Coherent Corp. on 8.

Valuation

Metric CGNX COHR Scientific & Technical Instruments median
P/E 51.53 53.54 33.25
P/S 8.32 5.80 4.50
P/B 5.56 3.67 2.90
Price to free cash flow 34.23 n/m 24.81
EV/EBITDA 32.44 30.84 17.92
EV/Sales 7.94 5.97 4.71
Earnings yield 1.94% 1.87% 0.60%
Free cash flow yield 2.92% (2.48%) 1.27%

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% 11.15%
EPS growth (last fiscal year) 9.68% 892.31% 11.47%
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 0.63% — 0.58%
Payout ratio 0.33 — 0.36

Size

Metric CGNX COHR Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Market cap 9.37b 49.35b 444.25m

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