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How to buy Cognex Corporation stock
Own Cognex Corporation stock in just a few minutes.
Cognex Corporation is a scientific & technical instruments business based in the US. Cognex Corporation shares (CGNX) are listed on the NASDAQ and all prices are listed in US Dollars. Cognex Corporation employs 2,055 staff and has a trailing 12-month revenue of around USD$811 million.
How to buy shares in Cognex Corporation
- Compare share trading platforms. If you're a beginner, look for a platform with low commissions, expert ratings and investment tools to track your portfolio. Narrow down top brands with our comparison table.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, like your ID and bank information. Fund your account with a bank transfer, credit card or debit card.
- Search for Cognex Corporation. Find the stock by name or ticker symbol: CGNX. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Cognex Corporation reaches your desired price. To spread out your purchase, look into dollar-cost averaging, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. Weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimize risk through the market's ups and downs. You may be able to buy a fractional share of Cognex Corporation, depending on your broker.
- Check in on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Cognex Corporation. Optimize your portfolio by tracking how your stock — and even the business — performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that can affect your stock.
What's in this guide?
- CGNX shares summary
- Compare share dealing platforms
- Is CGNX stock a buy or sell?
- Stock performance over time
- Can I short CGNX shares?
- Are CGNX shares over-valued?
- Cognex Corporation's financials
- How volatile are CGNX shares?
- Does Cognex Corporation pay a dividend?
- Have CGNX shares ever split?
- Other common questions
Cognex Corporation share price
Use our graph to track the performance of CGNX stocks over time.Cognex Corporation shares at a glance
Information last updated 2021-03-03.
| 52-week range | USD$34.1601 - USD$101.747 |
|---|---|
| 50-day moving average | USD$85.3606 |
| 200-day moving average | USD$74.5337 |
| Wall St. target price | USD$90 |
| PE ratio | 82.68 |
| Dividend yield | USD$0.225 (0.26%) |
| Earnings per share (TTM) | USD$1 |
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The value of any investment can go up or down depending on news, trends and market conditions. We are not investment advisers, so do your own due diligence to understand the risks before you invest.
Is it a good time to buy Cognex Corporation stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. This is not a recommendation, however. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
This chart is not advice or a guarantee of success. Rather, it gauges the real-time recommendations of three popular technical indicators: moving averages, oscillators and pivots. Finder is not responsible for how your stock performs.
Is Cognex Corporation under- or over-valued?
Valuing Cognex Corporation stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Cognex Corporation's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
Cognex Corporation's P/E ratio
Cognex Corporation's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 83x. In other words, Cognex Corporation shares trade at around 83x recent earnings.
That's relatively high compared to, say, the trailing 12-month P/E ratio for the NASDAQ 100 at the end of 2019 (27.29). The high P/E ratio could mean that investors are optimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're over-valued.
Cognex Corporation's PEG ratio
Cognex Corporation's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 2.04. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Cognex Corporation's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
Cognex Corporation's EBITDA
Cognex Corporation's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is USD$232.5 million.
The EBITDA is a measure of a Cognex Corporation's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.
Cognex Corporation financials
| Revenue TTM | USD$811 million |
|---|---|
| Operating margin TTM | 25.4% |
| Gross profit TTM | USD$604.6 million |
| Return on assets TTM | 6.99% |
| Return on equity TTM | 13.46% |
| Profit margin | 21.72% |
| Book value | $7.18 |
| Market capitalisation | USD$14.6 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Shorting Cognex Corporation shares
There are currently 2.5 million Cognex Corporation shares held short by investors – that's known as Cognex Corporation's "short interest". This figure is 0.5% up from 2.4 million last month.
There are a few different ways that this level of interest in shorting Cognex Corporation shares can be evaluated.
Cognex Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR)
Cognex Corporation's "short interest ratio" (SIR) is the quantity of Cognex Corporation shares currently shorted divided by the average quantity of Cognex Corporation shares traded daily (recently around 734315.2238806). Cognex Corporation's SIR currently stands at 3.35. In other words for every 100,000 Cognex Corporation shares traded daily on the market, roughly 3350 shares are currently held short.
However Cognex Corporation's short interest can also be evaluated against the total number of Cognex Corporation shares, or, against the total number of tradable Cognex Corporation shares (the shares that aren't held by "insiders" or major long-term shareholders – also known as the "float"). In this case Cognex Corporation's short interest could be expressed as 0.01% of the outstanding shares (for every 100,000 Cognex Corporation shares in existence, roughly 10 shares are currently held short) or 0.0146% of the tradable shares (for every 100,000 tradable Cognex Corporation shares, roughly 15 shares are currently held short).
Such a low SIR usually points to an optimistic outlook for the share price, with fewer people currently willing to bet against Cognex Corporation.
Find out more about how you can short Cognex Corporation stock.
Cognex Corporation share dividends
Dividend payout ratio: 219.7% of net profits
Recently Cognex Corporation has paid out, on average, around 219.7% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 0.29% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Cognex Corporation shareholders could enjoy a 0.29% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Cognex Corporation's case, that would currently equate to about $0.225 per share.
Cognex Corporation's payout ratio would broadly be considered high, and as such this stock could appeal to those looking to generate an income. Bear in mind however that companies should normally also look to re-invest a decent amount of net profits to ensure future growth.
Cognex Corporation's most recent dividend payout was on 12 March 2021. The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 25 February 2021 (the "ex-dividend date").
Have Cognex Corporation's shares ever split?
Cognex Corporation's shares were split on a 2:1 basis on 4 December 2017. So if you had owned 1 share the day before before the split, the next day you'd have owned 2 shares. This wouldn't directly have changed the overall worth of your Cognex Corporation shares – just the quantity. However, indirectly, the new 50% lower share price could have impacted the market appetite for Cognex Corporation shares which in turn could have impacted Cognex Corporation's share price.
Cognex Corporation share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, Cognex Corporation's shares have ranged in value from as little as $34.1601 up to $101.747. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta is a measure of a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (NASDAQ average) beta is 1, while Cognex Corporation's is 1.6531. This would suggest that Cognex Corporation's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively-speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).
Cognex Corporation overview
Cognex Corporation provides machine vision products that capture and analyze visual information in order to automate manufacturing and distribution tasks worldwide. Its machine vision products are used to automate the manufacturing and tracking of discrete items, including mobile phones, aspirin bottles, and automobile tires by locating, identifying, inspecting, and measuring them during the manufacturing or distribution process. The company offers VisionPro software, a suite of patented vision tools for advanced programming; Cognex Designer that allows customers to build vision applications with a graphical, flowchart-based programming environment; and Cognex deep learning vision software. It also provides a range of inspection tasks, including part location, identification, measurement, assembly verification, and robotic guidance; and vision sensors for vision applications, such as checking the presence and size of parts; the In-Sight product line of vision systems and sensors. In addition, the company offers ID products comprising DataMan image-based barcode readers and barcode verifiers. It sells its products to consumer electronics, automotive, consumer products, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices industries, as well as through a network of distributors and integrators. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Natick, Massachusetts.
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