Is the business good?
How good a business is CGNX?
Cognex Corporation earns 13% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
13%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 4.1 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 19%
Operating margin · Scientific & Technical Instruments median 17% · 12 months to Q1 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.69×
Cash conversion · 1.38× a year ago · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Share count, year on year
- −1.2%
Share count, year on year · bought back, each share owns more of the company
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 21% |
| FY2021 | 30% |
| FY2022 | 24% |
| FY2023 | 16% |
| FY2024 | 13% |
| FY2025 | 16% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 68%
- Operating margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 19%
- Net margin12 months to Q1 2026
- 14%
- Free cash flow margin
- 23%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 14%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $1.05B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $241M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $143M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 13%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Scientific & Technical Instruments
Ranks #10 of 16 by Smart Score